Cleto DiGiovanni M.D. Jr.

1935 - 2023

Dr. Cleto DiGiovanni Jr., passed away on February 12, 2023, at the age of 87. Born in Detroit, Michigan on July 26, 1935, he was an American patriot and lived his life in service to his people.
Cleto attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where he conducted virology research in the laboratory of Dr. John Enders at Harvard and established a virus culture laboratory at the Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in Hanover. He later received his M.D. degree from the University of Michigan Medical School and completed his internship at Ohio State University Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
Cleto joined the U.S. Navy as a medical officer and served as the SOG Medical Officer and the SEAL Team Diving Medical Officer during his one-year tour of duty with the Special Operations Group, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. He served two tours in Vietnam with SOG at Khe Sanh, Dak To, Dak Pek, and Kham Duc. He then joined the Central Intelligence Agency as an intelligence officer, working in Europe, the Far East, the Middle East, and Latin America. After resigning from the CIA, he wrote about security issues in Central America, served as a consultant to private business interests, and assisted in the first Reagan campaign as a foreign policy advisor.
Cleto returned to medicine by entering a psychiatric residency program at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and a behavioral sciences fellowship program at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. He initiated the psychiatric care of patients with HIV/AIDS in collaboration with Dr. Frank Polk, and returned to Federal Service as a staff psychiatrist at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He contributed to the nation's preparations for terrorist attacks involving biochemical weapons and served as a collateral duty psychiatrist for the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Hostage Rescue Team.
Cleto retired from the federal government in 2002, but later worked as the Public Health and Medical Advisor for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Advanced Systems and Concepts Office. He was a member of several panels and committees related to quarantine, bioterrorism preparedness, and disaster preparation. He retired for a final time in 2007 and lived in Southern California until his death.
Cleto authored or co-authored over 180 papers, chapters, and two monographs on medical and national security topics. His primary hobby was playing the violin.
Cleto is survived by a close friend and the friend's four children, Ian, Caleb, Isaiah, and Nathan.