Frank LaCamera

Frank LaCamera, Jr., M.D., 88, a St. Petersburg cardiologist of more than 50 years, died Jan. 11, 2015, in the Westminster Suncoast retirement community where he lived with his wife of 60 years, Frances Chesson LaCamera. When told of Dr. LaCamera's death, Tampa Bay Times award-winning journalist Andrew Meacham reflected that "kindness and skill" were two attributes that he would ascribe to him. Those words and their sentiments come up often and with passion as family, friends, former colleagues, patients, and so many others from the worlds of music, medicine, public service and faith talk about Frank LaCamera. Dr. LaCamera could not walk down a hallway in the hospital or stroll along the Pink Streets of Pinellas Point where he lived for 40 years without greeting and speaking to almost everyone he encountered -- friend or stranger, young or old. He was warm, welcoming, interested and made time. Patients coming for office appointments knew they would be waiting, often for longer than was really comfortable, because when they finally got in to see him, Dr. LaCamera would give them the time they needed. They would have his attention, respect and care when the news was good and when it was difficult and tough. His patients knew they were in kind and skilled hands. Dr. LaCamera and his wife moved from Cleveland -- where he had been a cardiology fellow with the Cleveland Clinic team that pioneered the first heart catheterizations -- to make St. Petersburg their home in the early 1960s. He joined the cardiology practice of the late Dr. Milton Rogers, which led to Dr. LaCamera's role in the founding of the Roger's Heart Foundation and catheterization laboratory at St. Anthony's Hospital. He also helped plan the first cardiac "cath lab" for All Children's Hospital. For decades, Dr. LaCamera performed cardiac procedures on children and adults all along Florida's West Coast from Tallahassee to Naples. Among his many awards and recognitions, he was most proud of receiving the first ever Allegany Franciscan Award for service to St. Anthony's Hospital in 1999. The award honored both his kindness and his skill. Born into a medical doctor's family in Warren, Ohio in 1926, he emerged into the world 15 minutes ahead of his twin brother Robert (now a retired paediatrician). He was an army sergeant in Panama during World War 2 and did his undergraduate and medical school training at the University of Cincinnati. Most people who knew Dr. LaCamera over his almost nine decades of life will say he embraced all aspects of his life with cheerful energy and commitment. He was crazy about watching basketball, especially the University of Cincinnati's basketball team. The Florida Gators were another passion. He smiled and laughed watching a football game on TV the night before he died. Dr. LaCamera believed in service -- he was a Rotarian -- and philanthropy. He loved the arts, especially music. At a very young age, he was performing competition-winning piano duets with his twin. But it was a love of choral music, which he shared with his opera-trained wife Frances, that captured his heart as both listener and performer. He sang with the Tampa Bay Master Chorale and served as its board chair. He was a devoted church choir member all his life, with deep affection for his 60-year membership in the First United Methodist Church choir. His faith and devotion to church was a bedrock for him throughout his life, and especially in the weeks before his death, while living with the non-Hodgkins Lymphoma diagnosed only in mid-December. He led Bible study and made prayer a daily practice in his life. Dr. LaCamera's much loved mother, Miriam Geis LaCamera, often said "family love is everything". He reflected that conviction with utter devotion to his surviving wife Frances, his four children - Kathleen LaCamera Loughlin of Manchester, England, David and Robert LaCamera of Sarasota, FL, Richard LaCamera of Palm Harbor, FL and seven grandchildren Cathryn, Caroline, Brian, Christy, David, and Daniel LaCamera and Michael Loughlin - who both delighted and worried him and whom he loved fiercely and steadfastly. Writing tributes to their grandfather on FaceBook his grandchildren called their grandfather "kind" and "special." Dr. LaCamera is also survived by his brother, Robert LaCamera of Hamden, CT. A Memorial Service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Jan. 16, at First United Methodist Church, 212 3rd St. N., St. Petersburg, with visiting hours on Thursday, Jan. 15, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Anderson McQueen Funeral Home, 2201 Dr. MLK St. N., St. Petersburg. The family is planning a celebration and memorial service for Dr. LaCamera at a later time. Donations can be made in Dr. LaCamera's name to the Traditional Music Program of First United Methodist Church and to the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay.