Stephen D. Cetrulo M.D.

1942-2022 Newark Native, Taos Surgeon On a pre-dawn morning in 1985, on the high desert mesa outside Taos, NM, two good friends on one of their frequent hunting trips were scouring the horizon for a bull elk. Driving a Jeep CJ- 7 was Bennie Romero, a Taos Pueblo Indian of local renown for his hunting, riding and survival skills. Bennie had been scouting the bull elk for days, and together with Taos' premier surgeon, Steve Cetrulo, M.D., they set off well before sunrise on the hunt. Dr. Stephen D. Cetrulo born in Newark, NJ in 1942, was a local luminary in his own right. This transplant from New Jersey, and a Taos resident since 1969, Dr. Cetrulo was well-known as one of Taos Ski Valley's most fearless skiers, a pilot, a martial arts expert, a wind surfer and importantly, the only Board Certified thoracic surgeon in Northern New Mexico. Dr. Cetrulo's route from Newark, NJ via Barringer HS ('59), Columbia College ('63) and the NJ College of Medicine ('67) to Taos, began when he was drafted after his internship at Newark's Martland Medical Center. In lieu of becoming a combat surgeon in Vietnam, Dr. Cetrulo joined the US Public Health Service and, from 1969-1972, ran the Taos Pueblo Indian Health Clinic. After scouting several locations, Bennie Romero was maneuvering his Jeep over hilly terrain when it skidded on sand and went into a barrel roll down a 60 foot incline. Dr. Cetrulo suffered a displaced fracture of his leg, and, crawling from the wreckage, found Bennie unconscious and bleeding from severe head wounds. Recognizing his friend's peril, Dr. Cetrulo crawled back up the hill and fired his Remington 700 dozens of times until his ammunition was expended. He started a brush fire as well, all in a desperate attempt to attract attention to their remote accident site, all the while fearing that his friend would die without immediate attention. Miraculously a National Park Ranger heard the shots and saw the smoke from Dr. Cetrulo's fire, which was all the evidence of trouble he needed to set off for the accident site. Steve refused medical attention until Tony was in the OR at Taos' Holy Cross Hospital where Dr. Cetrulo was the Chief of the medical staff. It was determined that Tony had indeed suffered life threatening injuries from which he eventually recovered. The story of the Jeep rollover, dramatic rescue, and Dr. Cetrulo's selfless devotion to a friend, became an often-told tale around Taos and the Taos Ski Valley. In its important, unadorned details, it speaks volumes as to what was most important in Dr. Cetrulo's life, and of his stature in his adopted home of Taos. He was above all, a loyal and selfless friend, devoted to his patients and surgical practice. It was said that any Cetrulo who put a credit card down in Taos never paid. "Your money is no good here. Steve Cetrulo saved my life…" was frequently heard around town. Stephen Donald Cetrulo was born in Newark NJ on March 22, 1942 to Frances Mistretta Zeiess. Frances (Barringer HS , '32) was an office worker in NYC when she divorced in 1945. The young family lived on Weequahic Ave in Newark, until 1948, when Frances married Guido "Chet" Cetrulo (Barringer HS, '30, University of Alabama, '34), who had recently returned from war-time service in North Africa and Italy, and a stint with the Marshall Plan. Steve was adopted by Chet and was raised on Mt. Prospect Ave. in Newark, becoming one of the third generation of the large Cetrulo Family. Dr. Cetrulo passed away in Taos on January 1, 2022 from complications following a heart attack. Steve's rite of passage into the Cetrulo family was to learn the sport of fencing under the tutelage of his Uncles Gerald ("Doc") Cetrulo and Dean Cetrulo. Steve became part of extraordinarily talented national championship fencing teams at Barringer HS (teaming with his cousin Jerry Cetrulo, NYU, '63) and at Columbia (with his cousin Dr. Curtis L. Cetrulo, Newark Academy, '67, Columbia, '65, NJ College of Medicine, '69). At Columbia Steve was an All-Ivy and All-American fencer in 1962 and 1963, and a member of Columbia's NCAA Championship team in 1963, and a member of Columbia's NCAA Championship team in 1963. After graduating first in his class at Columbia, and achieving the highest academic awards in his pre-med course load, Steve received his MD from the NJ College of Medicine in 1967. A prestigious thoracic surgical residency at UCLA followed where Steve became a member of the select Longmire Society, an honor bestowed only upon the best of UCLA's Department of Surgery Chief Residents. In Steve's 52 years in Taos he fully embraced the outdoor life, and reveled in the lives of his three children, one step-child and four grandchildren, to which he was unfailingly generous and kind-hearted. Steve applied the same dedication to both his vocation and his avocations. He exercised vigorously every day, was always engaged in the study of new surgical techniques, the martial arts, avionics and windsurfing, and was an ardent student of Spanish and the guitar. Steve made his closest friends in the pursuit of his many interests, and it is no surprise that they would include a collection of like-minded skiers, pilots, martial artists, windsurfers and aerial daredevils. Steve's immense surgical talents and humanity, ability to weave a tale, his quick wit and encyclopedic knowledge of all subjects will be remembered for generations in Taos. Steve leaves his wife, Linda Buckingham, his children, Kristi Dyan Cetrulo of Santa Fe, Giancarlo of Vero Beach, and Jeanne Goins of Taos, his stepdaughter Sara Goins of Taos, and his four beloved grandchildren. Steve was predeceased by his mother, Frances Cetrulo, his step-father Chet Cetrulo, and his sisters, Ellena Marra of Glen Ridge, NJ and Geraldine ("Dina") of Nutley, NJ. Steve leaves his only surviving sibling, his brother Lawrence G. Cetrulo, Esq. of Cambridge, MA, and his many extended cousins in the Cetrulo, Mistretta and Sorgi Families. Steve will long be remembered and cherished as one of the iconic and accomplished members of the Cetrulo Family of Newark, NJ.