Dr. Peter Ditoro, 95, passed away peacefully in his sleep at his home in Huntsville on Sunday, March 26.
The son of Italian immigrants from San Giacomo, Italy, he was born in Pittston, Pennsylvania on May 27, 1921. His mother, Concetta, and father, Guiseppe, had 11 children, and they taught them to work hard and do their best. His father, a laborer around the coal mines, encouraged his children to have a better life than he had. Even though neither parent could read or write English, all the children either went to college or joined the military and led successful lives.
From these humble beginnings, he attended the University of Alabama, where he received a bachelor of science in biology and chemistry in November 1942. After graduating, he attended Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he studied both homeopathic and allopathic medicine, graduating in March 1946. Having attended school year-round because of World War II, he was only 25 when he became a doctor.
He served a fifteen-month internship at Philadelphia’s St. Luke’s Hospital. This internship was a rotating one where he delivered babies, learned and performed surgeries and did just about everything. Following the internship, He joined the U.S. Air Force and was sent to England for two years, from 1947 to 1949, and was there during the Berlin Blockade, one of the first crises of the Cold War.
He came home and began his first practice in Pittston, Pennsylvania. Then, in 1951, he moved to West Pittston, where his office was in his home. He practiced medicine in Pennsylvania until 1967 when he moved to Huntsville, Alabama, and became Huntsville Hospital’s first emergency room doctor. After working in the ER for a year, he began his own general practice where he made house calls, delivered babies and performed surgeries.
When he began he was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The only time he wasn’t on call was when he was out of town. There were no beepers or cell phones. If he went to the movies, he had to tell the answering service where he would be, give them the number and tell the usher where he was sitting in case he received a call.
He had office hours at night and on Saturdays. He made six to eight house calls each day and delivered babies at home. An office call was $2, and house calls were $3. Now office calls are around $50, and of course, there are no house calls. During his 65 years of practicing medicine he saw major changes both positive and negative in the practice of medicine.
The most positive change was in technology and medication. During his early years, there was no blood pressure medicine and antibiotics were just coming into use, and they were sulfa drugs. Penicillin was only available through injection. Then it was available orally, but had to be taken four times per day. Now, some medications can be taken once each day or even once per week.
The negative he saw was a lack of closeness with the patients today. When he made house calls, he was where they lived, in their homes. He really knew who they were.
In addition to his medical practice he planted a garden every summer, worked on carpentry projects and worked out at the gym four to five days each week. Most people who heard what his age was didn’t believe it. They usually though he was in his 70’s.
He used to joke that his secret to his longevity was that he ate a lot of spaghetti and meatballs but seriously he said that the Lord had blessed him. He came from a healthy, hardworking family. His mother never bought butter or bacon, never put a salt shaker on the table, and he only ate meat, chicken or fish once a week. He also worked on watching his weight and posture. His favorite advice was to always keeping moving and challenging yourself.
Survivors include his children, Joseph Ditoro (Linda) of Chicago, Illinois, Peter Ditoro (Jeffrey Speranza) of San Francisco, California, Susan Baum of Foster City, California, Mary Smith (Lloyd) of Branford Florida, Victor Ditoro (Lori) of Alabaster, Alabama, Albert Ditoro of Huntsville Alabama, Deborah Policare of West Pittston, Pennsylvania; several grandchildren and great grandchildren; and his sister, Mary Larnerd of Manassas, Virginia.
Expressions of sympathy can be made to the Covenant Presbyterian Church (Huntsville), the Whitesburg Baptist Church (Huntsville) or the University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa).
