Doctor remembered for dedication, humor

By Rick Dandes
The Daily Item

March 31, 2009 08:13 am

— Editor’s note: The main story in today’s Pulse section features the Family Practice Centers and founders Dr. Domenick Ronco and Dr. Charles Fasano. Pulse is printed in advance, and we learned with deep regret of the death of Dr. Fasano over the weekend. However, his family asked that The Daily Item publish the article as planned.
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MIFFLINBURG — Dr. Charles P. “Chuck” Fasano, a prominent physician who helped found a chain of Family Practice Centers serving a five-county region, died over the weekend. He was 67.
Friends who reportedly tried to reach him by phone on Friday and Saturday went to his house in Mifflinburg, where they found him lying on the floor. The cause of death has not yet been determined.
“This was a shock to everyone who knew him,” said Dr. Domenick Ronco on Monday.
Born in Lock Haven, Fasano began his professional career as a pharmacist. He received his degree from Temple University in 1963. Five years later, he earned a medical degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.
He met his wife, Rhoda, a Mifflinburg resident, in Lewisburg.
Fasano started a medical practice in Mifflinburg in 1973. In 1980, he and Ronco initiated a joint practice, which grew into the concept of Family Practice Centers.
“After Mifflinburg, we opened an office in Mount Pleasant Mills,” Ronco recalled. “And then we kept expanding. It developed pretty fast. We obviously filled a need. One of Charles’ goals was to bring the highest level of care to the rural areas of central Pennsylvania. He was also very proud that the practice was at the forefront of technology in the Valley.”
There are now 38 doctors in 21 Family Practice Center locations in Snyder, Union, Northumberland, Dauphin, Perry and Lycoming counties.
Fasano’s colleagues remember his ability to make life better for others, his sense of humor and an indefatigable commitment to his patients.
That commitment, however, did not take him away from his family in Mifflinburg, something that still amazes daughter Maria Bhangdia.
“He was very dedicated to work and to his patients,” Bhangdia said. “You know how people say he was a great doctor? He was a more awesome father. He was an amazing role model for me, my sister, Carol, and my brother, Charles.
“He always had big dreams and was always there for us. I don’t know how he balanced it all. I can’t think of a single moment in our lives when he wasn’t there for us.”
Besides his passion for his patients and his family, Fasano was also remembered for his sense of humor, a trait he kept until the end.
“My dad always loved learning,” Bhangdia added. “He encouraged all three of us to chart our own course, not to necessarily follow in his footsteps but to follow what we were passionate about. That’s what pushed me in my own direction.”
Bhangdia is a pathologist at Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg. Charles Fasano is an emergency room doctor at a hospital in Philadelphia, and Carol Gruber works for Merck Pharmaceuticals.
“He was very proud of his family,” Bhangdia continued. “No matter what we did.”
He was also proud to have been a mentor to so many physicians who came into the area.
“He exemplified what it is to be an ideal physician; he was a role model that centered everything around his patients,” said Dr. Hank Yavorek, a general surgeon who knew Fasano for 18 years.
Yavorek practices surgery at Sunbury Community Hospital, Evangelical Community Hospital and Shamokin Area Community Hospital.
“I was a resident when I first met Chuck,” Yavorek said. “He was like a father figure to a lot of physicians in the area. He was someone you could always turn to for good, solid, no-nonsense advice, whether it was medical advice, hospital politics or a business problem.”
Yavorek called him the founding father of primary care groups in this area.
“He was an innovator,” he said. “He had a vision, and he had a good nose for business.
“He was an individual who only comes along once in a lifetime. I’m a general surgeon. He was a general practitioner, but I could bounce ideas off him. It didn’t matter what specialties we practiced. You could always count on Chuck.”

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