Former UNM dean dies

news@dailylobo.com

Leonard Napolitano, former dean of the UNM School of Medicine and father to U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, died last Monday in Albuquerque. He was 82.

Secretary Napolitano told the Albuquerque Journal that her father died of natural causes right before his 83rd birthday, which would have been on Jan. 8.

Napolitano is survived by Janet Napolitano, his son Leonard Napolitano Jr., his daughter Nancy Angela Napolitano, and four grandchildren.

Napolitano lived most of his life in Albuquerque, and joined the UNM School of Medicine in the mid-1960s as a teacher in the school’s Department of Anatomy. He became the school’s third dean in 1972 and retired in 1994.

Napolitano was the first chairman of Mind Research Network (MRN), an Albuquerque-based organization, and had served on the team for several years. In 2009, he was recognized in Washington for his work on MRN’s “Dominici Neuroscience Symposium,” which the organization participated in alongside the National Institutes of Health.

Also in 2009, he became the first recipient of the UNM School of Medicine’s “Living Legend Award,” which recognized his service to UNM.

UNM Chancellor for Health Sciences Paul Roth said Napolitano was an integral part of the development of the School of Medicine. He said the school owes part of its success to the former dean, and that he sympathizes with the Napolitano family for their loss.

“I am deeply saddened with the passing of one of the great legends of New Mexico and one of the fathers of the UNM School of Medicine,” he said. “He saw what we could become and built the foundation upon which our great Health Sciences Center stands today.”

Funeral arrangements are being handled by French Funerals and Cremations in Albuquerque. According to the Las Cruces Sun-News, services for Napolitano are still pending.