Dr. Philip Mazzocchi Jr., DDS, longtime Arlington County resident and community leader, passed away on May 5, 2019, at the age of 90. Born and raised in Fayetteville, W.Va., the son of Philip and Loreta Mazzocchi, Phil was a member of the Fayetteville High School Class of 1946. He entered Morris Harvey College (now the University of Charleston) on a football scholarship, then transferred after one year to the University of Louisville, from which he received a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree in 1953. He entered active duty in the Air Force in 1954 and was stationed at Bolling Air Force Base.
While a dentist in the Air Force, Phil earned the respect of his commanders and peers for his hard work and devotion to duty. In November 1955 he received a commendation for the long, often off-duty hours he dedicated to restoring the dental health of a pilot who had been a prisoner of war in Korea for three years and required extensive treatment, including thirty-odd fillings.
One night after an on-base social event near the end of his term of active duty, Phil met Pamela Jay of Durban, South Africa, who was visiting the United States and working at the Indonesian Embassy in Washington. That evening’s spontaneous date at the Hot Shoppes near the Pentagon was followed by a phone call the next day and a wedding ten months later, in July 1956. That year, Phil also joined the dental practice of Dr. Harry Roush in Arlington. Throughout the 1960s, Phil practiced general dentistry, but he also began to pursue training in the emerging field of endodontics (root canals). By the early 1970s, root canals had become his professional focus, and Phil continued his role as an innovative and reliable endodontist for the area until retiring in 2003.
Phil and Pam had three sons, David (1957), Jay (1959), and Peter (1964). They moved the family from Annandale to the newly built New Dover neighborhood in Arlington in 1966; they lived in that house for the next fifty years. As parents, Phil and Pam navigated the pitfalls of the 1960s and 1970s with wisdom, hard work, and good fortune. The family became parishioners of St. Agnes Catholic Church upon moving to Arlington. Phil had been baptized Roman Catholic as an infant but was raised in the Presbyterian Church because there were no Catholic churches in Fayetteville. He was confirmed a Catholic after his marriage to Pam.
Phil was active in professional and community organizations, including a term as the president of the Northern Virginia Dental Society. He enjoyed decades of golf at Army Navy Country Club, but his most passionate nonwork activity was coaching football and basketball. For years, after a full day doing root canals, he’d come home, put on comfortable slacks and grab his whistle, and head back out to the field or the court. He coached for many memorable seasons in the Arlington Cubs youth sports program and also served as organization president. As a retiree, Phil volunteered for several years at the Library of Congress.
A short summary of Phil’s qualities—to which all of his friends, professional peers, and family members can attest—would include:
He worked in a medical field that was universally regarded as terrifying, yet he was beloved by his patients for his gentleness, integrity, compassion, and skill.
He was accomplished and confident, a very proud man, but he had no arrogance. He lived primarily as a devoted servant to family, friends, and community.
He was a firm traditionalist with a charitable and tolerant heart, exceptionally smart while unconventionally kind.
He was at once an unpretentious West Virginian and a stylish Washingtonian.
He enjoyed learning the details of others’ lives and could make a stranger into a friend in a five-minute conversation.
He was a loving husband, father, and grandfather, always interested in and supportive of his family members’ activities and accomplishments.
Phil was greatly loved and will be deeply missed by Pam, his wife of 62 years; his children, David (Lisa), Jay (Megan), and Peter (Tara) Mazzocchi; his seven grandchildren, Elizabeth Seton Raynor (Aaron) and Mary Clare, Michael, Anna, Lexi, Christopher, and Lilly Mazzocchi; his brother, Leo (Nancy); his sister-in-law, Jeanette (Gordon) Herndon; and his many nieces and nephews.
A visitation will be held at Murphy Funeral Home, 4510 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, Va., on Thursday, May 16, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in memory of Phil on Friday, May 17, at 10:30 a.m., at St. Agnes Catholic Church, 1910 N. Randolph St., Arlington, Va., followed by interment at Quantico National Cemetery.
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