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About the Ramondelli Lectureship
An endowed lectureship was established in 2023 by Arturo C. Porzecanski, Ph.D., and Nina Ramondelli Porzecanski, M.A., the brother-in-law and sister, respectively, of Dr. Salvatore M. Ramondelli. The Porzecanski family wished to recognize and honor Dr. Ramondelli for his lifetime achievements as an exceptionally compassionate, highly competent, and especially beloved surgeon in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The endowment is also testament to the gratitude that Arturo and Nina Porzecanski have for Dr. Ramondelli, whose generous, timely, and wise medical advice always proved highly beneficial to them, their children, and their grandchildren. The lectureship was established to benefit present and future residents and faculty of the General Surgery Residency Program at the Wright State School of Medicine (now the Boonshoft School of Medicine), of which Dr. Ramondelli is a grateful and proud alumnus.
About Salvatore Ramondelli, M.D.
Dr. Salvatore (“Sal”) M. Ramondelli was born and raised in Italy, but when he was ten years old, his family emigrated to the United States and settled near relatives in Pittsburgh, PA. He was the first in his household to attend high school – never mind college, medical school, and a surgery residency program. Dr. Ramondelli graduated from Central Catholic High School in Pittsburgh (1966) and attended the University of Pittsburgh, main campus, where he majored in Chemistry and graduated with a B.S. degree in 1970. He then returned to his native Italy and pursued his medical education at the University of Bologna, the world’s oldest university in continuous operation, graduating as a physician in 1976.
Dr. Ramondelli returned to Pittsburgh and completed his internship and started his surgical residency at Shadyside Hospital, now part of UPMC. He transferred to the Wright State University School of Medicine in 1979 and finished the General Surgery Residency Program in 1982. Upon completion of his training, he won a coveted fellowship in cardiovascular surgery at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he was mentored by the famed Dr. Michael E. DeBakey.
Dr. Ramondelli came back to Dayton in mid-1983 to practice general and vascular surgery as part of the Midwest Surgeons group, with operating privileges at seven Dayton-area hospitals. He rejoined the Wright State University School of Medicine as affiliated clinical faculty, helping to train medical students and surgery residents.
In mid-1996, Dr. Ramondelli moved to State College, PA, obtaining privileges at the Mount Nittany Medical Center and affiliating himself initially with the Geisinger Health System and then with the Mount Nittany Physician Group. In 2009, Dr. Ramondelli received the Jane Strickler, M.D., Award which honors members of the medical community who improved the quality of healthcare for the residents of central Pennsylvania by meeting the highest standards of innovation, excellence, and service. Starting in 2014, he became part of the teaching faculty as an Adjunct Professor of the new Penn State Health Family and Community Residency Program at Mount Nittany Medical Center.
Dr. Ramondelli has very fond memories of his training at what is now the Boonshoft School of Medicine’s Department of Surgery. “The surgeons on the faculty were exceptional in teaching us the art of surgery, including training us to develop the physical and mental endurance needed to practice that art,” he recalls. Dr. Ramondelli vividly remembers Dr. Dan W. Elliott, the Department’s founding chair (1975-1988), “whose wisdom and infinite knowledge of surgery he always shared with the residents with a calm and effective demeanor.” He is also most grateful to Elliott’s successor, Dr. James B. Peoples (1988-2002), “for his extensive surgical skills, such that even years after graduating, I would often call him for advice on tough clinical situations and he always made himself available and was extremely helpful.” Dr. Ramondelli also fondly recalls Dr. Robert Turk, then program director at Wright-Patterson Medical Center and St. Elizabeth Hospital, “an excellent teacher who could spot certain weakness in his residents and would act to correct them even before they realized they had a problem.”