Dr. Alvin Jacob Wirthlin

Dr. Alvin Jacob Wirthlin, our beloved husband, father, and grandfather, passed away on Saturday September 28, 2024. He was a great man who combined the highest integrity and love with fun and mischief.

Alvin was born on September 7, 1939 in Flushing, Queens, New York City to Emelie Stiefel, a talented tapestry artist who restored tapestries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. His father, Dr. LeRoy Alvin Wirthlin delivered him on the dining room table.
Alvin spent most of his free time playing stickball in the park, learning violin, and taking in rowdy children’s matinees at the local movie theatre. To avoid the polio epidemic, Alvin, his mother and three older siblings, Leroy, Ralph and Barbara spent summers in a remote farm in the Catskills with no running water or electricity and only a horse drawn buggy for transportation. The children would relieve their boredom by hunting squirrels and raising rabbits.

At age eleven, Alvin, his parents and siblings, moved from New York City to a farm in Salt Lake County, Utah. They lived in a Victorian farmhouse complete with secret passageways and sealed off rooms. He had to quickly adapt from an Urban lifestyle filled with museums and city parks to a remote, rural one. He dropped his queens accent almost immediately and soon learned to milk the family cows, thin beets, prepare feed for the livestock, and drive a tractor. In fact, he became so good at driving a tractor, as a teenager he was crowned champion at a local tractor driving contest, much to the dismay of the seasoned farmers.

Alvin loved to enter the calf scramble at the Utah State Fair. The contest involved roping a calf and dragging it out of a corral. Most of the time the calves would just drag the children around in the dirt, while the adults laughed in the stands. One year Alvin saw a calf with a rope around its neck but no child attached running out of the corral. Alvin grabbed the rope at the last moment and rode the calf out of the corral. He ended up winning the calf.

Alvin continued to improve his violin skills in Utah even though his family did not like him practicing in the house. He had to travel miles by bike down country roads to take violin lessons from a trumpet teacher, showing a lifetime determination to pursue his hobbies.

Alvin graduated from Granite High School in Salt Lake City in 1957 and began attending the University of Utah. Alvin served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Switzerland and Austria from 1959 to 1962. He served in a leadership role and even made a brief, unauthorized attempt to open up the gospel behind the iron curtain in Yugoslavia.

After returning to his studies, Alvin met fellow University of Utah student, Virginia Gay Stirling on a blind date, where Alvin spent most of his time talking to his old mission friends instead of his date. Somehow the courtship continued and their happy marriage lasted 61 years and produced four daughters: Jill, Wendy, Karin, and Kristy, one son: Michael, and 10 grandchildren.

Alvin graduated from the University of Utah and earned his doctorate of medicine degree from the same school. He pursued his internship in neurology in St Louis and a Residency at UCLA. During the Vietnam War, Alvin joined the Navy as a medical officer (Captain) and treated returning marines at Camp Pendleton. Alvin and his growing family returned to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1973, where he began his neurology practice. During his private practice, Dr. Wirthlin became a respected neurologist and continued his training during two stints at Queens Square Neurological Hospital in London.

In addition to violin, Alvin pursued an ambitious array of hobbies and skills including golf, skiing, flying airplanes, basketball, softball, tennis, furniture building, violin making, fly fishing, mushroom foraging, rock hounding, dim sum cooking, bread baking and many others.

Alvin and Virginia bought a beach house in Nova Scotia, Canada after retiring. They spent their summers with family clamming, kayaking and eating lobsters.

Alvin was an avid traveler, making many trips to Europe throughout his life. After an unexpected financial windfall in the late 1980’s, Alvin and Virginia chose to spend the money taking their five children on a grand tour of Europe. During a later trip to Budapest Hungary, an organized group of pickpockets stole his wallet on a streetcar and exited the train right before it left the station. Alvin realized his wallet was missing and yelled at the driver to stop the train. He jumped off and began chasing the man with the wallet, which prompted two of his children to follow suit. The three caught up to the man who could see he had no choice but to quickly returned the wallet.
Alvin continued his love of traveling by accompanying his daughter and son in law on two adoption trips to China to assist in the adoption of his grandchildren. His love of Chinese food and culture prompted him to become an excellent Chinese chef known for his potstickers.

Alvin was an avid and skilled outdoorsman, making many rigorous backpacking treks in the Uinta Mountains with his friends and his children. On one hiking trip up the Zion narrows, the family was caught in an unexpected downpour. The heavy rain created 20 foot wide waterfalls from the top of the cliffs into the river. The river quickly rose from ankle to shoulder depth. Alvin instructed his family and other hikers to link arms on the way out so as not to be swept downriver. This action likely saved many lives as the whole group was eventually able to safely exit the canyon and laugh about it later.

Alvin is preceded in death by his parents and his brothers Leroy and Ralph. He is survived by his loving wife, his children, and 10 grandchildren.

Visitation will be held on Tuesday, October 8th from 6:00 until 8:00 PM at Starks Funeral Parlor, 3651 South 900 East, Salt Lake City. Graveside service will be held on Wednesday, October 9th at 1:00 PM at Mount Olivet Cemetery, 1342 East 500 South, Salt Lake City.