Dr. Louie Linarelli, pediatrician to adults
marilyn...@aol.com
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
November 17, 2004
To many children with diabetes, he was a father figure, a gentle,
old-school physician with a soothing voice who would interrupt a
vacation to speak with a patient.
Dr. Louie Linarelli also was an educator, an amateur accordion player
and artist, a chef with a flair for Italian cuisine and a collector of
decorative crosses.
Before his death Nov. 8 at Kaiser Permanente Hospital, ending a
20-month battle with pancreatic cancer, Dr. Linarelli, 66, issued a
special request for his funeral.
"He wanted us to wear crosses from his collection from all over the
world," said his wife, Karen. "He had collected hundreds of them. It
would be a Mass of the Crosses."
The Mass was celebrated Saturday at a packed Sacred Heart Catholic
Church in Ocean Beach, and many of the family members and friends who
attended wore crosses from Mr. Linarelli's collection.
Known for an ability to balance parenthood with professional concerns,
Dr. Linarelli, a father of six, was honored twice by the National
Father's Day Committee as one of San Diego's Fathers of the Year.
In October, he was recognized as one of "San Diego's Top Doctors" by
the San Diego County Medical Society and San Diego Magazine.
As a board-certified pediatric and adolescent endocrinologist, Dr.
Linarelli conducted extensive research in the field of diabetes.
In 1966, during a pediatric internship and residency at Johns Hopkins
Hospital, he teamed with two associates in describing a condition that
came to be known both as Kenny-Caffey and Kenny-Linarelli syndrome.
It's characterized by dwarfism and cortical thickening of tubular
bones.
The son of an Italian-born grocer, Dr. Linarelli was born in Koppel,
Pa.
He learned to play accordion at 14 and often accompanied a brother and
friends in performing at events in his hometown.
He graduated from pharmacy school in 1960 at Duquesne University and
earned his medical degree in 1964 at the University of Pittsburgh.
In 1975, he settled in San Diego, where he directed a pediatric
teaching program at Mercy Hospital until 1980. The next year, he
established a private practice near Children's Hospital and later added
satellite offices in Vista, Chula Vista, Escondido and Temecula.
"His availability was legendary," said Dr. Leonard Kornreich, president
of the Children's Primary Care Medical Group. "He would pick up his
cell phone on the first ring and respond to the most complex questions
from a patient or a doctor."
Many of the patients he treated as children continued to go to him as
adults. "About 40 percent of his patients were adults," his wife said.
"They didn't want to leave him, and they brought their parents and
grandparents."
>From 1986 to 1992, Dr. Linarelli served as chief of the pediatric
endocrinology division at Children's Hospital. Then he became chief of
pediatrics at Mercy Hospital.
If a patient couldn't foot the bill, Dr. Linarelli was known to take
payment in fruits, vegetables, abalone or a platter of lumpia -
Filipino egg rolls.
En route to his home in Point Loma from work each Monday, he would stop
in Little Italy to shop for the fresh ingredients he needed for his
culinary specialties. Stocking up for the week, he would select the
finest pasta, pizza dough, sauces and olive oil he could find.
His signature dish was salmon, which he often prepared with rice
containing peas, cheese and a chicken broth. If a recipe didn't come
from his head - "He would throw things together," his wife said -
it came from the cable TV cooking channel.
And olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper were always part of the package.
As if his home-cooked meals weren't an event in themselves, Dr.
Linarelli often serenaded guests with accordion music.
A few years ago, Dr. Linarelli also found time to travel, a pleasure he
had denied himself for decades. His favorite destination was Gioisa
Ionica, a small village in the southern province of Calabria, Italy,
the birthplace of his father.
His travels produced a bounty of crosses, mostly religious in origin,
diverse in size and color. He ordered others from catalogs and museums.
Dr. Linarelli was diagnosed with cancer in April 2003 and continued to
work until Oct. 6 of this year.
As cancer took its toll, Dr. Linarelli was consumed by one concern:
finding doctors to take care of his patients.
"He wanted to assure continuity of care," Kornreich said. "He had
hundreds of diabetic patients, hundreds of thyroid patients and almost
100 children who were growth deficient and on growth hormone.
"He was a kind, sweet man, and more like a family pediatrician than a
specialist."
Survivors include his wife, Karen; daughter, Kerrie A. Weber of Rancho
Bernardo; sons, Louie M. of Oceanside, Gregory of University City,
Michael of Point Loma, Nick of Rome, Italy, and Vince of Point Loma;
sisters, Cathy Hammack of Alexandria, Va., and Nika Matzzie of
Pittsburgh; brother, John of Claremont; and half-sisters, Jean Vanassa
and Rosemarie Salzano, both of New Castle, Pa.; and two grandchildren.
A funeral Mass was celebrated Saturday at Sacred Heart Catholic Church,
San Diego.
Donations are suggested to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation,
5677 Oberlin Drive, Suite 110, San Diego, CA 92121; or to the American
Diabetes Association, 225 Broadway, Suite 1120, San Diego, CA 92101.