Dr. Herman Turner, former chief of the Oral Surgery Department at the old Jewish Hospital (now Barnes-Jewish), died Sunday, Jan. 9, at Missouri Baptist Medical Center in Town and Country. The cause was cardiac arrest, family members said.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Dr. Turner grew up there, where his parents owned a grocery store. His parents had emigrated to the United States on the ship the St. Louis.

Dr. Turner moved to St. Louis in 1940 and graduated from Washington University with an undergraduate degree before earning his dental degree at St. Louis University. He served as an army captain in Germany during the Korean War.

After completing his military service, Dr. Turner returned to St. Louis where he became chief of the Oral Surgery Department at the old Jewish Hospital, taught at Washington University and had his own oral surgery practice.

Always impressed by the courageous Resistance against the Nazis by the people of Denmark, Dr. Turner was moved after reading a book in 1963 about Dr. Karl Koster, a Danish physician who had played a major role in rescuing Jews from the Holocaust. The Danish Resistance moved into an active phase after 1943, when the occupying Nazis ordered the roundup of all Danish Jews on Rosh Hashanah of that year. Dr. Koster was a physician at a hospital outside Copenhagen. He helped bring in Jews under assumed names and illnesses and housed them throughout the hospital. Dr. Koster was credited as a “Righteous Gentile” for having saved 3,000 people in a three-week period.

In 1966, Dr. Turner raised funds locally to bring Dr. Koster to St. Louis. About 1,000 people, including about 200 Holocaust survivors, attended the event. A plaque was presented to Dr. Koster by the medical staff of Jewish Hospital, “In gratitude to the people of Denmark and particularly to the staff of Bisperbjerg Hospital, who acted so gallantly in rescuing their Jewish countrymen from their Nazi persecutors.” Dr. Koster accepted the honor on behalf of his colleagues from Dr. Turner and Dr. Maurice Abrams.

Dr. Turner retired from his oral surgery practice around 2000. He learned to ski and scuba dive at the age of 60 and enjoyed playing poker.

Dr. Turner was married to the former Beverly Brown for nearly 65 years. They married in 1947.

Funeral services were held last Tuesday at Congregation B’nai Amoona. Burial was at Beth Hamedrosh Hagodol Cemetery on Ladue Road.

In addition to his wife, survivors include two daughters, Carla Paull of Chesterfield and Lisa Fishman of University City; two sons, Stephen Turner of San Jose, Calif.; two sisters, Frances Karten of New Rochelle, N.Y., and Shirley Levine of Boston; and seven grandchildren.

Contributions may be made to the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry or to a charity of the donor’s choice.