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Obituary
Frank P. Castronovo, Jr., PhD, who was well-known and highly regarded for his kind and gentle demeanor during the 20-plus years he served as BWH’s radiation safety officer, died Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008, in his Winchester home from complications from ALS. He was 68.
“Frank blended an incredible font of knowledge and a keen sense of how to make a complex system work effectively with a persona unmatched in kindness and gentleness,” said Marcelo Di Carli, MD, chief of Nuclear Medicine.
The husband of Judith (Belli) Castronovo, Dr. Castronovo was born and raised in New Jersey. The son of Edna and Frank P. Castronovo Sr., he graduated from Rutgers University with his BS in pharmacy and master’s in health physics, and he earned his PhD in radiopharmacology at Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Castronovo studied ethno pharmacy in Kenya and Ethiopia in the 1970s. He had worked at MGH as a medical physicist and research radiopharmacist and the radiation safety officer. He was a member of the HMS faculty and a fellow in both the American Society of Health Care Pharmacists and the American College of Radiology
At BWH he was both the radiation safety officer and director of Health Physics and Radiopharmacology. Dr. Castronovo was instrumental in bringing the hospital’s new cyclotron online last year and authored a dynamic chapter in BWH’s PET Imaging book.
“Frank symbolized what it means to be a role model in the academic life through his clinical expertise and scholarly work,” Di Carli said.
For Mamood Cheema, a radiation health physicist, Dr. Castronovo went beyond being a role model and mentor during the 22 years they worked together. “He was so loved by everyone, and in all the time I knew him, I never heard him say a harsh word or an insult to anyone,” Cheema said.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a son, Andrew D. Castronovo of Winchester; two daughters, Jessica B. and Elizabeth F. Castronovo of Boston; and a brother, Robert Castronovo of Bridgewater, N.J. He was predeceased by his twin brother, Richard Castronovo.
Services were held last week from the Lane Funeral Home, and he was interred in Wildwood Cemetery in Winchester.