Angelo Nick Patsalis
Dr. Angelo Nick Patsalis, obtained from Dignity Memorial.
“When you believe in something deeply and know it’s important, you always find time, you’re never too busy, and never too tired. I am proud and blessed to be a family physician. It has helped me make a difference in people’s lives, both in the clinic and in the community.”
Angelo Nick Patsalis shared these moving words when he began his term as president of the Family Medicine Foundation of Michigan. Their humility and sincerity highlight how profoundly Angelo—or, as his adoring colleagues and mentees called him, Dr. P—dedicated his life to serving others. Angelo fell ill while working as a contract physician through a third-party provider at Wayne County Jail, in downtown Detroit. He passed away on April 6, 2020, due to complications from COVID-19, at age 63.
Angelo was born on April 27, 1956, in Detroit, Michigan, to Evangeline and Nick Patsalis. After graduating from Wayne State University, Angelo attended the University of Ioannina Medical School in Greece—a country with which he associated intimately, it being home to much of his family. After moving back to the United States, Angelo completed his residency at Henry Ford Health System Family Practice. He lived in Livonia, Michigan, and worked in St. Clair Shores, Canton, and Detroit. For many years, Angelo was on the Board of the Michigan Academy of Family Practitioners; he went on to serve as its president.
Angelo is remembered as a dedicated, genuine, and “exceptional” family practitioner, as his friends and colleagues wrote on the website of the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians. “Well respected by his colleagues and admired by the many medical students and residents that had the chance to be mentored by him,” he was described as a “kind, caring, great doctor” by those with whom he worked, a doctor who was “so genuine and cared so deeply about family medicine.” “He was the prime example of what it meant to be a family doc”: Angelo was “always the trusted, dependable presence in [his] workplace, a knowledgeable authority respected by all.”
In his time, Angelo mentored countless medical students, offering not only his wisdom and breadth of knowledge but also his compassion for the art of family medicine. As Mark Hamed, one of his students, shared:
“He was a great teacher who taught residents how to critically analyze information. He always reminded us of the importance of protecting and advancing the specialty of Family Medicine. He emphasized the versatility of our specialty, the uniqueness of our practices, and the need to be proactive in ensuring that the specialty of Family Medicine will weather any challenges it faces now and in the future… He was a firm believer in health equity and of addressing health disparities.”
Angelo extended this warmth and dedication to his patients. As one said:
“He was simply the best doctor of my almost 70 years of adult lift—thorough, gentle, professional to a fault, funny, patriotic, family oriented, always technically up to date; a phenomenal communicator, truly a golden Greek who loved his nationality and both his countries! And he loved his patients.”
Angelo was, truly, a “golden Greek,” a passionate and committed member of the Greek-American community. He was a Brother of the Aegean Chapter 506 of AHEPA; he served as Vice President of the Parish Council of the Nativity of Virgin Mary, a Greek Orthodox Church in Plymouth Michigan. His olive oils were, according to Denis Cook, “delicious.” Angelo was also an avid outdoorsman and hunter; he loved to travel and was a talented amateur photographer.
Above all, Angelo was incredibly devoted to his family. He is survived by his fiancé, Denis Bargon, and her daughters, Alice and Qiana; he is also survived by his goddaughters, as well as “his many friends in his beloved Platsa, in Athens, Ioannina, Rhodes, Crete, and throughout Greece and the United States.”
Dr. Angelo Nick Patsalis, obtained from Dignity Memorial.
Described as a “hothouse of misery,” Wayne County Jail is one of the worst COVID-19 clusters in Michigan. Angelo’s father, Nick, has also succumbed to the disease, and his mother, Evangeline, is in intensive care.
Angelo was one of those rare souls who had endless love to give—and who did so readily and sincerely. In all aspects of his life, he left a “legacy of leadership.” A “catalyst for change” and a “leader at the local, state, and national level,” Angelo bettered the lives of each of his patients, students, friends, and family members. He will be dearly missed.
This memorial was written by MOL team member Frances Keohane with information from reporting by Charlie LeDuff of Deadline Detroit, Dignity Memorial, and Michigan Academy of Family Physicians.
