Dr. Bernice Sigman, a pediatrician who became the associate dean of student affairs at the University of Maryland Medical School, died of complications of heart, kidney and lung disease May 23 at Tampa General Hospital in Florida. She was 87.
Born in Baltimore, she was the daughter of Anna and Edward Sigman, who were members of the family who owned the B. Green wholesale grocery business. She was a graduate of Forest Park High School and attended Martha Washington University.
She was a 1960 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and was one of three women in her class. In a 1977 article in The Baltimore Sun, she recalled that as a child she knew she wanted to be a doctor but had no interest in becoming a nurse. From 1963 to 1964 she was chief resident in pediatrics at the University of Maryland Medical Center and earned a master’s degree in genetics at the University of Washington in Seattle.
She returned to Maryland as an assistant professor in pediatrics in 1966 and was named associate dean for student affairs in 1972. “She had a natural instinct for students,” said Larry Pitrof, director the Maryland Medical Alumni Association. “She was a well-loved figure and the kind of person who kept a box of Kleenex on her desk and had toys ready for the children of students who came by for counseling.
” Mr. Pitrof recalled that Dr. John M.
Dennis, the former dean of the medical school, often referred to Dr. Sigman as “our Mother Superior.” She was a fo.
