Louis James Dellios

1927 - 2023

Louis James Dellios
1927 – 2023
Rancho Bernardo, CA.

Lou Dellios made people smile. It was a common thread running through every facet of his long, rich life, whether he was amusing you with a story, prodding you with a punchline, or building you a bridge.

Lou, who cared for a thousand patients as a dentist for nearly four decades in Waukesha, Wisc., passed away this month in Rancho Bernardo, Calif., where he and his wife of 64 years, Pat, retired a quarter century ago. He was 95.

Lou started his dental practice in 1956 after graduating from Marquette University's dental school. Before that, he earned a degree from Carroll College in Waukesha with the help of the ""G.I. bill"" after serving in the U.S. Navy at the end of World War II.

Born to a Greek immigrant family in Chicago, where he spent his early years playing ball in the alleys, Lou moved north to Wisconsin in 1942 with his parents and brother Peter. Lou's father, James, a chef, had been offered a job through a relative at a local restaurant.

Many Waukesha families will remember Lou's warm humor and gentle touch as he fixed, capped, and polished their teeth with the support of a close-knit and caring staff until his retirement in 1992.

As kind and humble as he was, curious and gregarious, Lou embraced everyone he met and celebrated everything about life, never losing sight of how fortunate his own had been. He was enchanted by the little twists, tricks, and turns that life presents -- especially the funny ones -- and he wove them into endless stories that bonded family and friends with love and laughs.

Born in 1927, on the eve of the Great Depression, young Lou aspired to be a carpenter and planned for his career by buying a hammer. Then war intervened. He joined the Navy just days after graduating high school and assumed he would be part of a bloody invasion of Japan. But after the atomic bombs, he served little more than a year before returning home to Waukesha.

While stationed at Pearl Harbor, he discovered his future when he was assigned to a Navy dental clinic by chance.

In 1958, Lou married Patricia Wynn Fletcher, a nurse and stepdaughter of a doctor from whom he rented his first dental office. He and Pat raised three children: Jon, Hugh, and Heidi (Dalvie).

For Pat, Lou was a ""marvelous"" husband, forever loving and supportive. To his kids, he was a fun, generous father and lifelong teacher, guiding them to the education that had opened so many doors for him.

Lou knew both loyalty and heartburn, having remained a Chicago Cubs fan his entire life. He watched his Cubs play in the World Series in the 1940s and again in 2016 after flying from California at 89 to sit in the Wrigley Field stands with a grandson.

In addition to his wife and children, among those cherishing his memory are daughters-in-law Cindy Johnson (Hugh) and Shana Lane (Jon); grandchildren Garrett Dellios, Neil Dalvie, Reese Dellios, Jay Dalvie, Alexander Dellios, Brynne Anderson, and Logan Anderson; sister-in-law Joyce Dellios, nephew Peter Dellios, niece Carol Dellios, and cousins Thalia Coorlas and Leah Giannopoulos Ericson.

With all his stories, Lou brightened memories of the loved ones who went before him, including his parents, James and Margaret, his brother Peter, son-in-law Manoj Dalvie, grandson Niko Dellios, and dozens of dear friends.

Lou will be interred at Prairie Home Cemetery in Waukesha, where his parents are buried. A celebration of his life will be held this summer in Waukesha.

In his memory, please consider contributing to the Louis and Patricia Fletcher Dellios Scholarship Fund at Carroll University (www.carrollu.edu/give, or 262-524-7240) or to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.