Dr. David M. Levine, a retired Johns Hopkins professor of medicine who worked to prevent heart disease in the East Baltimore community, died of a heart infection Nov. 5 at Gilchrist Center Towson. The Mount Washington resident was 86.

Born in Boston, he was the son of Samuel Levine, a cattle farmer who owned a New Hampshire general store, and his wife, Celia Sroelov. He graduated from Boston’s Boys Latin School, Brandeis University, the University of Vermont and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

He completed a residency at Montefiore Hospital in Pittsburgh and the Waltham Hospital in Boston. He served in the Army from 1965 to 1968 and was stationed at the Seoul Military Hospital.

While working at a Montefiore Hospital as a recent medical school graduate, he met a patient who suggested he meet the patient’s cousin. Through that connection, he met his future wife, Diane Browarsky. They married in 1965.

He also completed a preventive medicine residency and earned a Master of Public Health and Doctor of Science at Johns Hopkins. He joined the faculty in 1972 at the School of Hygiene and Public Health in the Department of Behavioral Sciences, according to a Johns Hopkins biographical sketch.

A Johns Hopkins statement said Dr. Levine did “pioneering work” in community-based participatory research that helped address health disparities, notably in cardiovascular disease.

“He served the medical needs of those who lived in East Baltimore,” his wife said. “He spent time working with the city’s African American clergy to help extend the medical care he wanted to offer.”

“He was a true mentor. He had a way of treating everyone the same, from first-year students to the dean, giving each his undivided attention and full support,” said Dr. Jeanne Clark, a colleague. “He set a longstanding precedent in the division of the importance of mentorship, from which we all benefited.”

During his time at Johns Hopkins, he trained more than 100 researchers.

“David was unique. There has never been anyone like him. He was always accessible, kind, interested, generous with his time and listened intently. He helped clarify goals and challenges before offering guidance that was always supportive,” said Dr. Martha Hill, the former dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.

“We always laughed at his unique fashion sense, which led him to wearing mismatched socks to work,” his wife said. “He was charming and very funny. He had jokes all the time. He was someone people would go to for problem-solving, and he did it with humor.”

“David set the standard on what it means to be a clinical researcher in an academic medical center. Besides leading some of the earliest and most influential studies on community-based hypertension control, he was an extraordinary mentor,” Dr. Larry Appel said.

He was also a faculty member at the Berman Institute of Bioethics.

Dr. Levine received the International Society of Hypertension Award for Outstanding Research in 1990 and the Johns Hopkins Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Community Service.

Services were held Nov. 8 at Sol Levinson Chapel.

Survivors include his wife of nearly 60 years, Diane Browarsky, a retired Bryn Mawr School literature teacher; a son, Adam Levine, of Baltimore; and a daughter, Jennifer Levine, of Portland, Oregon.