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Charles F. Salerno, MD, passed away Saturday February 17 at the age of 81.
Charles was born in Warren, Pa., in 1936, the youngest of four children. He was high school class president, catcher on the baseball team, and quarterback on the football team. Until the end, he advocated the single wing and drop kick.
He graduated from the University of Buffalo and in 1964, from the Stritch School of Medicine of Loyola University. Charles and Theda were married in Detroit in 1964 after a six year courtship that began when Theda was his nephew's first grade teacher in Warren and continued in Chicago as they both sought their graduate degrees.
He served as a doctor in the U.S. Army from 1964 to 1966 with a tour in Korea. He always referred to that time as his honeymoon since Theda accompanied him and taught in the missionary school near his army base. After his tour in the army, he completed his post doctorate specialty in pulmonology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit where he and a few friends talked of starting a multispecialty clinic together. They searched the country for a place that was in need of doctors and thus, Charles and Theda moved their young family to Pueblo, Colorado in 1971 where he was a founding physician of the Southern Colorado Clinic.
He left private practice to slow down a bit but doctoring was his passion and he spent the past several years practicing at Evans Army Community Hospital at Fort Carson.
Charles was an active member of the community. He served as president of the Colorado chapter of the American Lung Association for a term in the '70s, and helped at Champ Camp for children with severe asthma. He was active with the cub scouts and little league baseball associations. He was a lifelong Yankees fan and a true fan of all Colorado sports teams from the moment he made Colorado his home.
Besides his wife of 51 years, Charles is survived by his daughter, Michelle, (Joel Ziegler), and grandsons, Henry and Rowan, of Philadelphia, Pa. and son, Christopher (Ericka) of Littleton, Co., his sister Mary Jane Ayers, of Warren, Pa., and brothers Joseph of San Jose, Ca. and Leroy (Mary Anne) of Sunnyvale, Ca. and his nieces and nephews.
Charles loved his family and friends and they loved him. He will be greatly missed. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Thursday, March 22 at 10 at St Joseph R.C. Church, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue West, Warren, Pa., with Fr. Richard Tomasone, Pastor, officiating.
Entombment will be in the Mausoleum of the Ascension in St Joseph Cemetery, Warren, PA.
The Donald E. Lewis Funeral Home, Inc. has been entrusted with funeral arrangements. Email condolences can be sent by visiting www.lewisfuneralhomeinc.com.