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Anne 'Anna' Hollingsworth Pike, 90, an ob-gyn specialist

Anne "Anna" H. Pike

By Jan Hefler, Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted: July 08, 2011

Anne "Anna" Hollingsworth Pike, 90, an obstetrician-gynecologist who practiced in Germantown and taught at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, died Monday, June 27, at Lakeside at Willow Valley, a retirement community in Willow Street, Pa.

"All the doctors would send their wives to her," said Martha Biemuller, a colleague at the hospital and a friend for 55 years. "And she was a good teacher - all of the students wanted to scrub with her in the operating room, and she got awards from them, which is hard to get from students."

Dr. Pike was born in Moylan-Rose Valley and was the 1938 class valedictorian of Nether-Providence High School. In 1942, she graduated from Swarthmore College, where she was captain of the varsity field hockey team and a member of the basketball team. She also played clarinet in the college orchestra.

In 1946, Dr. Pike graduated from the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania. She was certified by the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology in 1955, becoming a fellow and diplomat of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Until she retired in 1985, Dr. Pike was in private practice in Philadelphia and served on the staff of the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania Hospital, the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia, Chester Hospital, and Roxborough Hospital. Dr. Pike was a professor at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, a forerunner of Drexel University College of Medicine.

Biemuller said that in the 1950s, Dr. Pike also was featured in Charm magazine in an article that focused on women who worked. "She was good-looking, and the article was about women in medicine. It had a lot of pictures of her in the operating room, in her office, with a patient."

Biemuller said Dr. Pike never raised her voice or cursed. "She was a lady. The worst word I ever heard her say was mercy."

Dr. Pike was president of the Avalon Garden Club in the 1990s, Biemuller said.

Dr. Pike is survived by a sister, Ruth Fooskas, and three nephews. Another sister, Jane Smedley Pike Buxton, preceded her in death.

Friends may call Saturday, July 9, from 9 a.m. until a funeral at 11, at the Lamb Funeral Home, 101 Byberry Rd., Huntingdon Valley. Interment will follow in Forest Hills Cemetery.

Donations may be made to the Ascension Lutheran Church, 600 E. Penn Grant Rd., Willow Street, Pa. 17584.

Contact staff writer Jan Hefler

at 856-779-3224 or jhefler@phillynews.com.