Louis J. Sanfilippo M.D.

04/13/1926 - 03/20/2026

Louis J. Sanfilippo, M.D., age 99, passed away peacefully on March 20 at his home in Short Hills surrounded by his family. He was born on April 13, 1926, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the eldest child of Luigi and Bastiana (Bartolone) Sanfilippo, Sicilian immigrants who settled in Milwaukee's Third Ward. He was a proud member of the Greatest Generation, shaped by humble origins and defined throughout his life by service - to his country, to his patients, and to his family.



Lou, as he liked to be called, was accepted into the Navy V-12 Officer Training Program while still in high school and completed his medical degree at Marquette University School of Medicine in 1950. He interned at Jersey City Medical Center before beginning active duty as a Navy physician in 1951. Assigned to the First Marine Division, he served as Battalion Surgeon during the Korean War, including the bloody Battle of Hill 749, and later as regimental physician, MASH anesthesiologist and triage officer. He completed his eleven-month tour having restored health to countless young Marines and returned home with memories that would last a lifetime, which he would later chronicle in his

memoir, A Navy Doctor Remembers the Korean War.



After completing his radiology residency at the Bronx VA Hospital, where he trained alongside future Nobel laureate Dr. Rosalyn Yalow, he joined the staff at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York. In 1960, he was awarded a prestigious American Cancer Society Traveling Fellowship, which brought him and his wife Ismene to leading cancer centers across Great Britain, France, and Germany. There he studied the emerging techniques of megavoltage radiation therapy at the feet of its European pioneers and returned to the United States as one of the field's early American champions.



He joined the faculty of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1962, where he introduced advanced megavoltage techniques not previously used there and conducted early research in breast conservation therapy, well before lumpectomy with radiation became a standard of care. In 1969, he accepted the chairmanship of the newly formed Department of Radiation Oncology at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, New Jersey, where he remained for twenty-eight years. What he built there transformed the landscape of cancer treatment in the state. He grew the department from four to forty staff members, treated 26,000 patients, trained twenty-two radiation oncology residents, and educated nearly three hundred radiation therapy technologists - at one point, nearly two-thirds of all radiation therapists practicing in New Jersey were graduates of his program.



Lou was one of the original founders of the Oncology Society of New Jersey and served as one of its early presidents. He founded the Section of Radiation Oncology of the Academy of Medicine of New Jersey and helped establish the state's first training standards for radiation therapy technicians. His department published ninety clinical research papers and presentations over his tenure.



Throughout his career, Lou was as remarkable for his humility as for his accomplishments. As his chief nurse of twenty-five years said at his retirement: "He instilled in all of us that whatever else we did, our patients always came first." Beyond medicine, he was a lifelong and voracious reader who could quote Shakespeare and other literary greats with ease, even in his final years, and he treasured time spent with family, especially along the Jersey Shore.



Lou is survived by his beloved wife of 68 years, Ismene (née Chrysostomou); his son Dr. Louis Sanfilippo and grandchildren Sofia and John; his son Dr. Nicholas Sanfilippo; his son Paul Sanfilippo; and his sisters Concetta Angelino, Mary DiRienzo, and Paula Sanfilippo. He was preceded in death by his sister Sara and daughter-in-law Tina. Friends may call at the Farmer Funeral Home, 45 Roseland Ave, Roseland, New Jersey, on Wednesday, March 25 from 4 to 8 pm and are invited to attend funeral services at St. Nicholas, Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church, 80 Laurel Ave, Roseland, on Thursday, March 26 at 10:30 am. Interment in Fairview Cemetery, Westfield. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to St. Nicholas, Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church.



The Sanfilippo family welcomes all family and friends to attend the Repass following the interment.



Location: Ferraro's, 14 Elm Street, Westfield.

Parking will be available in municipal lot at the corner of Elm and N Ave. W. by the train station. Lot number 8 will have reserved spaces, which in the back left side of the municipal lot.