WA - Dr. Linda E. Pinsky was born May 8, 1953 to the late Rheta (Baron) Pinsky and Albert Pinsky in Elkhart, IN. Linda was the middle child of older sister Jane and brother Mark. Linda passed peacefully at home from complications of Multiple Sclerosis on August 27, 2025.

Linda was a precocious, bright, willful child who graduated Valedictorian from Woodrow Wilson High School in Levittown, PA. She attended Hampshire College, in Amherst, MA for two years before leaving for Chicago to work in a women's medical clinic. She continued to travel west, eventually landing in Seattle, where she graduated with a BS in Biology from the University of Washington. During this time, she also earned a doctorate in Naturopathy at John Bastyr College in Seattle. Always intellectually curious, she was accepted into the University of Washington medical school where she graduated at the top in her class.

After completing her Internal Medicine residency training at UW, she began her career at the UW Medical Center. She was a physician-educator at UW and the founding director of Outpatient Medicine Education for Internal Medicine. Her published work appeared in numerous medical journals, including JAMA. She also taught clinical medicine in China, Guatemala and Uganda. Linda was a UW Associate Professor with a reputation as an innovative teacher of clinical medicine. In her spare time, she published a book about her medical and life journey, "Waiting for an Epiphany".

She met her husband in medical school, Rutherford Hayes, and the two of them shared a wonderful life for 40 years and raised two incredible boys: Alexander Brennan and Julian Hayes. Linda was a caring and nurturing mother and wife, quick witted, Avid book reader, runner, sailor and along with her wry sense of humor was a fun person to be around.

Linda was able to live this full and cherished life while integrating the challenges of Multiple Sclerosis for 3 decades, a progressive chronic, disabling disease. She will be woefully missed, but for those who she shared her life with, we will always be blessed.

A memorial service will be scheduled in October with an announcement to follow.

In lieu of flowers a donation can be made to:

Guatemala Village Health at : https://www.gvhealth.org/donate