Nancy Mary Panella, served as the medical librarian at St. Luke’s Hospital Center from 1970 to 2010, when she moved into the position of Archivist for the historical collections (2010-2016). In this interview she discusses her background and fields of study leading to a Doctorate in Library Services, her coming to work at St Luke's Hospital and her feelings about the Hospital. She relays several stories about interacting with staff, and mentions the development of the library, and particularly the historical collections, and being honored with being the first non-MD to be welcomed in to the Alumni Society of St. Luke's Hospital, and having the periodical room named in her honor.

In this oral history interview, native New Yorker George Dermksian touches on his childhood background, college and medical training and continued training under Dr. John Keating at St. Luke’s Hospital. That was a time of significant changes in the hospital training program and the healthcare insurance industry and he has some interesting observations about both. He also provides some interesting background details on everyday life at the hospital, and about how he came to choose cardiology as a specialty.

Dr. Lawrence Scharer, a pulmonary specialist, discuss his life and career with Dr. Norma Braun. He describes his upbringing in the Bronx, his education at Columbia University and the College of Physicians and Surgeons and his career at Roosevelt Hospital (now Mount Sinai West). He also touches on his family life, and his time as a Captain in the Army Medical Corps, stationed in Seoul, S. Korea.

Dr. Ennio Gallozzi, an anesthesiologist who was born, raised, and trained in Rome, Italy, discusses his life, and how he came to study in the US and continue training at St. Luke’s as a resident in anesthesiology, eventually spending 44 years at the hospital. He mentions life growing up under Mussolini, and the devastation WWII wrought on Rome, and includes stories about colleagues and family life.

In this interview, Dr. Thayaparan relates information about her childhood family and schooling in Sri Lanka, the stories of Dr. Tom Dooley, a medical volunteer in Africa, that were the inspiration for her to be a doctor, her reasons for immigrating to the U.S. and the development of her career here, and what led her focus on pathology. She also mentions information about her own family and dealing with childcare issues while working at the Hospital, and some of her post-retirement activities.

In this interview, Bronx native Robert Della Rocca talks about his youth and educational experiences, his time serving in the Vietnam War, which interrupted his medical training, his various training experiences in oculoplastic and orbital surgery afterwards, and his experiences working at St. Luke’s Hospital (now Mount Sinai Morningside) as well as New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. He highlights his family habit of volunteering, with his nursing-trained wife accompanying him as he operated in 15 countries through Latin America, the Dominion Republic, and the Middle East and training over 90 international fellows in his sub-specialty of reconstructive surgery in some of those places in over 22 years of volunteering. Dr. Della Rocca mentions his children, several of whom are following in his medical and volunteering footsteps, and his grandchildren, and touches on the reasons he is so fond of St. Luke’s Hospital.

In this interview Dr. Allendorf talks about how he became interested in pediatrics, and shares stories about his experiences working at St. Luke’s Hospital (Mount Sinai Morningside), and some of the significant people that influenced him and worked with him. Some of those names include: Leif Holgersen, Richard Stark, Lucy Swift, Sidney Bender, Miles Schwartz, Lou Cooper, Leo Wilking, John Driscoll, and Marilyn Menegus. Significant topics include residents’ skits lampooning the attending staff, Roosevelt Hospital library, Babies Hospital.

In this interview, Dr. Todd touches on his medical school experiences, including time at the NIH as a medical student; how he eventually gravitated to vascular surgery from cardiac surgery; describes what St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center was like, even 21 years after the merger of the two hospitals, and mentions the Vietnam War draft, family life, and changes in surgery between the 1960s to current day, including changes in procedures and equipment. Significant names mentioned include: Drs. Richard Marx, Walter Wichern, Sigurd Ackerman, David Tilson, Andrew Morrow, Kathy McNicholas, Grace Kim, Ann Rogers, Jim McGinty; The Cleveland Clinic, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Roosevelt Hospital, St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center.