By Karen Andrew
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Dr. Archie Fine was 97 years old, but he and his wife still enjoyed daily walks in Ault Park. They loved nature and enjoyed traveling to Sanibel Island, Fla., as well as other ocean and mountain locations.

The Hyde Park resident died Tuesday of complications after a breaking a hip in a fall at home.

The son of Russian immigrants, he was born in 1906 in Toronto, Canada. He helped pay for his and younger brother Charles' college expenses through pick-and-shovel labor for the Toronto Street Railway. He graduated from the University of Toronto and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1932, he earned a master's in physiology from the University of Toronto Medical School.

Dr. Fine married Anne Hoffman of Toronto. After an internship in Chicago and pathology residency at Louisiana State University in New Orleans, the Fines and their three children moved to Cincinnati in 1936. He trained in radiology at the Jewish Hospital.

In 1941, he and his brothers Jacob and Charles, both doctors, volunteered for the Army Medical Corps. He was later promoted to lieutenant colonel.

At the end of World War II, Dr. Fine returned to Cincinnati and the Jewish Hospital, where he served as director of radiology and radiology residency. He developed the Radiation Oncology Division. He collaborated and published studies on radioisotopes (nuclear medical therapy) and on the effects of histoplasmosis on the lungs, a common fungal infection in the Ohio Valley.

Dr. Fine attended the Oak Ridge Institute for Nuclear Studies in 1950 for training in the use of radioactive isotopes.

He was appointed associate clinical professor of radiology at the University of Cincinnati. He also had a private radiology practice and was affiliated with Longview State Hospital.

In 1985, Dr. Fine was named physician of the year by the Jewish National Fund. A grove of 1,000 trees was planted in his name in the Cincinnati Physician's Forest at Kabri, Israel.

His wife, Anne, died in 1986. He married Dorothea Berger of Cincinnati in 1988.

After retiring in 1987, Dr. Fine wanted to continue helping people. He taught adults to read and master mathematics at YMCA.

"He said he would do whatever he could to help. He got a lot of pleasure out of helping people his age earn their GEDs," said one of his sons, Dr. Edward Fine of Buffalo, N.Y. "He always said, 'When you stop learning, you stop living.' He was a very humble guy. He was a man who expected much from himself but did not ask a lot from others."

Dr. Fine was a 60-year member of the Isaac M. Wise Temple. His skill in reading Hebrew enabled him to read the Torah. Besides English, he spoke Yiddish, German and French, and read Latin and some Greek.

He was named a fellow of the American College of Radiology and was a member of the Radiological Society of North America and the American Medical Association.

Preceding him in death were his brothers, Jacob and Charles, and sisters, Sylvia Rose and Shirley Schneider.

In addition to his son, he is survived by his wife of 15 years and two other sons, John S. of Hyde Park and Robert L. of Columbus; numerous nephews, nieces, grand nephews and grand nieces.

Services were held. He was interred in the United Jewish Cemetery in Evanston.

Memorial: Jewish National Fund or charity of one's choice.

E-mail kandrew@enquirer.com