Eleni Bacola Ciacco

Eleni Bacola Ciacco -- 7/20/33- 1/18/26

Daughter of Nikolaos and Aikaterini (Vasilopoulou) Bacolas, sister of the late Dimitrios Bacolas, wife of the late Guy Ciacco, is survived by her daughters Katherine (Russell) Palatianos and Marie (James) Tsivitis, grandchildren Alexandra, Helen (Ben), Johnny and Christopher, and nephew Nikolaos (Chrisanthi).

Eleni (Elly) was born and raised in Thessaloniki Greece where she experienced World War Two through the Nazi occupation of her city. Witnessing war, famine and injustice at an early age influenced the course of her life. She graduated high school at the top of her class, with an additional diploma in French language. Despite facing widespread discouragement as a woman, she graduated from Aristotle University School of Medicine at the age of twenty-three. She moved to the United States to continue her studies at Flushing Hospital and Bronx Hospital in New York. It was during this period that she met her future husband, Guy Ciacco. They married in July 1961 after she completed her pediatric residency and had twin daughters the following May.

In 1964, Elly moved to Kansas City and pursued fellowship training in pediatric cardiology and pediatric rehabilitation at the University of Kansas. She became the director of maternal and child health for Kansas City, Missouri, where she applied her skills in pediatrics, nutrition, public health, and family advocacy. In 1967, she returned to NYC and worked as a pediatrician for a large medical group. She moved to Long Island in 1969 where she opened her own practice in Stony Brook NY. Over the following forty-two years, she cared for thousands of children, some of whom were the offspring of her former patients. In addition to local hospitals, St. Charles, Mather and the former Smithtown General, she worked at Stony Brook University Hospital and proudly assisted in clinical training of residents from 1980-2011, eventually achieving rank of Associate Professor.

Elly enjoyed attending opera and ballet performances and traveling the world. She cherished her Greek heritage and Orthodox faith. Elly was passionately committed to education, seeing it as essential for both health improvement and helping people reach their fullest potential. Following her retirement in 2011, she joined the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, OLLI, at Stony Brook and enjoyed learning and interacting with new friends, describing the experience as "the fun of learning without homework!"