On January 31, 2021, Nicholas T. Catanuto, MD, formerly of Orange, Connecticut, loving husband of Joan (Lazarchick) Catanuto, and father of 4 children, Carolyn, Michelle, Michael, and Kimberly, passed away at the age of 88 years.
Nicholas was born on April 18, 1932 to Sebastian and Eleanora (Guzzardi) Catanuto in Brooklyn, New York, where he spent his childhood years (across from Ebbets Field) before moving to Goshen, New York, where he attended St John’s High School. He worked his way through his undergraduate education beginning in 1949 with a partial scholarship at New York University, and completed his degree at Saint Peter’s College (now University) in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1955.
He wed Joan Lazarchick in July 1955. He received his MD degree from Dalhousie University Medical School in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1961. He served in the US Navy from 1961 to 1964, for 2 years on shore, where he was 1 of only 2 Medical Officers who cared for the community at the Naval Weapons Station in Concord, California, and 1 year at sea as Chief Medical Officer. In 1964 he moved his family to Orange, Connecticut, where he established his private practice as a family physician; he eventually moved his office to Derby.
After retiring from private practice in 1991, he served as Director of the Granoff Student Health Center at Southern Connecticut State University for 10 years.
He took great satisfaction from his career as a family physician. His patients found him to be very approachable and a good listener; his care often was dispensed with sage advice, a quality that that was also appreciated by many outside of his medical practice.
Nicholas was preceded in death by his father at an early age, and his mother Eleanora, his beloved wife, Joan, his brothers Emanuel (and wife Frances) and Sib, and his daughters Michelle (Jindra) and Kimberly (Batter, Zevetchin). He is survived by his children, Carolyn and Michael (wife, Patricia), sons-in-law, David Zevetchin, and Josef Jindra, and many sisters- and brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and grand nieces and nephews.
A memorial mass will be held at Egan Chapel of Saint Ignatius of Loyola at Fairfield University at 12:10 on Tuesday, October 19, 2021, in Fairfield, Connecticut.
In lieu of flowers, Dr Catanuto requested that donations be made to Dalhousie University Medical School Faculty of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine (PO Box 15000, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3H 4R2, Canada; online: alumniapps2.dal.ca; or phone: 800 – 565-9969).
