Dr. Nicholas Petrakis

I was fortunate to make the acquaintance of Dr. Petrakis in 1960, when I worked as a medical secretary in an office next to Preventative Medicine in the Old Mefical Building. I am writing this now because I have sn ear problem that brought to mind a conversation I had with Nick, in which he mentioned that he was studying the connection of different types of ear wax with. the incidence of breast cancer. I thought he was brilliant. Not only gifted in the medical profession, he delighted us...

Nick was a true ornament to medicine that UCSF could be inordinately proud of.
Universally loved and respected among his many friends and colleagues, he was truly a universal man. He could speak knowledgeably about almost any subject and he had a wide range of interests. Extemely modest about his own work, I never heard him boast about it or himself over the many years I knew him. As a medical consultant he had no peers.
We at the San Francisco History of Medicine Society where he had ...

Dear Pat, Sue, Steve and Sandy,

It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of your husband/father. Carol Fegté, Patricia Kelly, Ph.D., Jan Andersen, and many others who worked with Nick (some of us for 30 years or more) will greatly miss him (especially Piero Mustacchi, M.D.). Thanks to Jack Lange, M.D., Charles Schulz (Peanuts cartoonist) signed and framed a series of earwax cartoons based on Nick's research. (Nick especially loved the "I lie awake at night" series of...

I remember Professor Petrakis as a kind, caring teacher when I was a med student (in Steve Petrakis' class) at UCSF. He was a lovely person who inspired many of us.
Joanne De Phillips, MD, MPH

Der Nick I knew you through the Bay area History of Medicine Society and in later years from giving you rides to and from these meetings which I always enjoyed. You were always such a gentleman and so interested in everything. I will miss you greatly. Sally Kaufmann