Salvatore Vasile

Salvatore Vasile was born on November 13, 1916 to immigrant parents living in Little Italy, Manhattan. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School, City College and Boston University School of Medicine. He served as a front line doctor in the United States Army in North Africa, Sicily and the Italian peninsula. He was captured by German forces near Bologna, Italy and remained a prisoner of war for six months, before convincing the German commandant in his fluent German, to release him and 60 other prisoners, for which he was awarded a Purple Heart and the French Cross.

After the war, he and his wife, pediatrician Lucy Russo, opened a medical practice in Jackson Heights Queen. They had two children, Lucy in 1946 and Russell in 1948. In 1952, the family purchased a country home in Tomkins Cove, where they enjoyed weekends and summers. After retirement he lived full time in Tomkins Cove, where he enjoyed many diverse interests including foreign language study (Persian, Russian, Italian and German), astronomy, and spirituality. He traveled widely with his wife throughout Europe and the Middle East.

He is survived by his children, Russell and Lucy, their spouses, Sue and Tom, grandchildren Elizabeth, Pamela and Nicholas, great grandson, Raymond, and many nieces and nephews. Despite battling disabling Parkinson’s Disease for the last decade of his life he never gave in to despair. In the final month of his life he confided to a friend, “I hope they need doctors in heaven”.

Visiting will be held at Higgins Funeral Home in Stony Point on Saturday September 10, from 9-11am with a funeral service to follow at 11am. Interment will be at Mt. Repose Cemetery.