Robert Peter Cavallino

Robert Peter Cavallino, MD, age 90, died at his home in Tucson, AZ on July 26, 2025, from complications of Parkinson's Disease. His children and grandchildren were with him, and he drew his last peaceful breath surrounded by their love. Predeceased by his wife Patricia Ann (Connolly) in 2024, he is survived by sons John Cavallino and Peter Cavallino, daughter Sarah Cavallino McMahon, and grandchildren Robert and Paloma McMahon.
Dr. Cavallino was born Rosario Robert Cavallino on November 12, 1934, in Brooklyn, NY, to Angelina Gallo and Anthony V. Cavallino. His mother was a seamstress, and his father was a baker. He grew up in Brookline, MA, when the area was rural enough to have a dairy farm at the end of his street.
A gifted scholar even in elementary school, he was recommended to skip two grades at Harriet Baldwin Elementary School, and then to study at Boston Latin School. His academic excellence at BLS earned him admission to Harvard, which he began attending while he was only 16 and still living at home. He joined the Air Force ROTC his junior year, and although he hoped to be a pilot, the Air Force decided that he was better suited to attend medical school. Upon graduation from Tufts School of Medicine, he went to Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, HI, to complete his medical internship at Tripler Army Medical Center.
He was then stationed at Westover Air Force Base in MA, as a flight medical officer in the hospital and on the flight line of B-52 Stratofortress bombers and their Stratotanker refuelers. Dr. Cavallino recalled his service days with pride and nostalgia. He hitched rides throughout the Pacific from Hickam, and from Westover he flew over the North Pole. He was assigned to nuclear armed bombers, and was one of the first three physicians ever to graduate from the Air Force Advanced Arctic Survival School. He contributed to the diagnoses of a number of unusual cases, received 2 Air Force Commendation Medals, and met his future wife Patricia in the Westover Officers Club.
After an honorable discharge with the rank of Captain in 1962, he married Patty and joined a private medical practice in Amesbury, MA, where he also served as the county medical examiner. Although he was called briefly back to Westover during the Cuban missile crisis, Dr. Cavallino characterized these few years in Amesbury as a satisfying period of old fashioned country doctoring. During this time, he and Patty welcomed their eldest son John.
In 1966, Dr. Cavallino was invited to become a Radiology Fellow at Cornell University Medical College in Manhattan, after which he spent 11 years practicing diagnostic radiology at Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey. He rose to Chief of Operations and residency training, and Vice-President of the medical staff. Peter and Sarah were born during these years.
Dr. Cavallino's last career move was to Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago, where he was asked in 1978 to be Associate Director of a small and underpowered radiology department. He called in favorite colleagues from around the country, convinced the hospital to purchase the second MRI unit ever seen in the United States, and as Chairman from 1983-2005, built a thriving department. He trained decades of residents with intellectual rigor, humility, humor, and a remembrance of how the doctor-patient relationship used to be, back in his day. IMMC's Cavallino MRI Institute honors his legacy, and an annual award is given in his name to the resident who most exemplifies his attributes. He was president of the Chicago Radiological Society, and received their highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award.
Dr. Cavallino used to joke that his hobby was work, and although he did work long hours, he managed to relax sometimes, too. He spent his leisure time doing what he loved: traveling with Patty and friends, golfing, racing his several sports cars, attending the opera and symphony, and sharing a lifetime of excellent meals with loved ones. He made and kept friends easily, and enjoyed being with his family. He nurtured all his relationships with his essential qualities of generosity, loyalty, honesty, and trust in the goodness of humanity. Dr. Cavallino never acted from malice, and often gave to others to the point of sacrificing himself. He had a peerless vocabulary, which made him a superb writer, storyteller, and master of dry wit. He loved perfection for the beauty of it: a flawless automobile, a top tier stereo, a fine tie, a precision watch. It was impossible for him not to try his best, and he was often baffled to encounter carelessness in others. He was a mythic father and grandfather: awe inspiring, absolutely dependable, loving, and benevolent. He had a gift for achieving the impossible, whether it be unraveling an elusive diagnosis, or gracefully ending a disagreement.
An unbearable irony of his last dozen years is that Dr. Cavallino could neither diagnose his own wife, nor resolve her conflicts. In his memory, we ask you to spread awareness that unacknowledged dementia is insidious, and a sufferer can profoundly harm their loved ones. If you see changes in the behavior of an elderly person, say something. Your observation may provide crucial validation to a family in agony. Dr. Cavallino and Patty were unable to follow the plan they had made for retirement, and from 2018 lived apart from each other in separate wings of a care facility. In 2025, Dr. Cavallino returned to his home in Tucson, to spend his precious last months with family.
Interment with military honors will take place at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, HI. Donations may be made to The Sons of Italy Foundation Scholarship Fund (previously Ordine Figli d'Italia), without which Dr. Cavallino could not have attended Harvard.