The Belgian-born Samuel Klagsbrun arrived in New York City with his parents in 1941, speaking only French, having successfully escaped persecution during WWII. It was here that his family would begin their lives over, leaving an established life behind them in Europe. A very young Samuel learned the diamond trade from his father, but that was not his passion. He worked as a teacher to support himself while following his heart to become a psychiatrist. Dr. Klagsbrun received his psychiatric training at Yale, served as Chief of Psychiatry at the U.S. Naval Submarine Base in New London, Connecticut, and then opened a private practice in New York City.

He searched for a suitable facility in which to establish a private psychiatric hospital. He wanted a place that offered a treatment milieu different from a typical hospital setting where he could feel comfortable hospitalizing his own patients.

In 1978, Samuel Klagsbrun, MD, purchased Four Winds Hospital in Westchester, with a clear vision: to create a place that combined the highest level of clinical care with deep empathy for patients and their families situated on a beautiful campus-like setting. Expanding Dr. Klagsbrun’s vision into upstate New York, Four Winds opened another hospital in Saratoga Springs in 1986.

From the beginning, Dr. Klagsbrun’s goal was to build a healing, nurturing environment where patients would be treated with dignity, respect, and individualized care, the kind of place clinicians would trust to treat their own families.

That philosophy remains at the core of Four Winds today. Still family-run, the hospital continues to evolve while staying grounded in the same commitment to thoughtful, compassionate care that it was founded on.

Dr. Sarah Klagsbrun, his daughter, is proud to carry on her father’s legacy.