Louis Vincent Avioli ’53

Lou Avioli, world-renowned in endocrinology and bone metabolism, and professor of medicine and orthopedics at Washington U. medical school, died at his home in Clayton, Mo., on Nov. 21, 1999, after a long bout with cancer.

Born in Coatesville, Pa., Lou was brought up in Jersey City and educated at Henry Snyder H.S. At Princeton, he belonged to Tower Club, played 150 lb. football, and graduated magna cum laude. Among his roommates were Jim Andretta, Jim Effron, Toby Maxwell, and Phil Swirbul.

He married Joan Truax in 1955, and received his MD from Yale in 1957. Joan said that Lou had fought off his disease so well for 12 years that family and friends began to think him invincible.

The Nov. 24, 1999, St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted that twice Lou was chosen one of the best 120 doctors in the nation by the clinical chiefs of 87 medical schools. Jim Effron said that Lou was the most dedicated individual to his profession that he ever knew, and Lou believed the practice of medicine should not be for profit but for mankind's greater good. Deepest sympathy to Joan, sons Richard '78, Michael, and Gregory, daughters Edie Avioli-Sears and Judy Adelman, and 14 grandchildren.

The Class of 1953