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Individuals mentioned on Page 352: James Henry DeGerome, 28 October 1907 – 27 February 1999; Helen Theresa Ciluzzi, James DeGirolamo, Rachel Starace, Helen C. DeGerome
Page 353: Dr. James H. DeGerome, Glen Ridge physician
Dr. James H. DeGerome, 91, a physician in Glen Ridge for 40 years, died in Florida on Feb. 27, 1999.
A Mass was offered in florida for Dr. DeGerome, who was living in Delray Beach, Fla. and Sea Girt, and arrangement were by the Lorne and Sons Funeral Home, Delray Beach.
Dr. DeGerome died in the Boulevard Manor Nursing Home, Delray Beach.
A general practitioner for 40 years in Glen Ridge from 1938 until his retirement in 1978, Dr. DeGerome served on the staffs of Mountainside Hospital, Glen Ridge, Montclair Community Hospital and St. Vincent’s Hospital, Montclair.
“He was an old-fashioned family doctor who made house calls even during snow storms and weekend,” said his daughter Donna Raab.
“He answered the telephone himself, interrupting supper to listen intently to patients tell of all their aches and pains,” she said.
She never realized how special her father was to so many local families.
“Over and over I ran into former patients who remembered him not only as their family physician, but as the father or husband figure who they couldn’t relate to at home,” Raab said.
Dr. DeGerome was so familiar with the family history of his patients in the borough that he didn’t need to perform multi-diagnostic tests to diagnose an illness, she explained. He was just as available to his family, always ready to offer medical advice and make treatment recommendations.
“Dr. DeGerome presents himself to us as a friend, interested and compassionate, with naturally flowing psychological expertise of the type that generates confidence and optimism – hope for those with dreaded diseases, always finding time for full discussion of the problems with reassurance and kindness in presenting possible progress or regress, comforting advice so needed to prevent a feeling of hopelessness and eventual depression which in themselves hasten degeneration,” wrote Mildred Johnson in 1978.
Dr. DeGerome was a graduate of New York University and the Long Island College of Medicine in New York.
He was a member of the American Medical Association, the New Jersey Medical Society, Holy Name Church in East Orange, Montclair Golf Club, Spring Lake Golf Club, Delray Beach Club, and the Delray Beach Club.
Dr. DeGerome served on the board of directors of the Bar Harbour condominiums in Delray Beach.
Born in New York City, he lived in Glen Ridge before moving to Sea Girt in 1978.
He purchased a second home in Delray Beach the same year.
Surviving are his wife, Helen; a son, Dr. James III, a daughter, Donna Raab; two brothers, Dr. Cyrus and Dr. Harry; two sisters, Louise Willex and Rachel Renna, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
