San Francisco County
Biographies
CHEV. DR. ANDREA
DE LUCIS, M. D.
Nearly forty years ago, Chev. Dr. Andrea De Lucis arrived in San Francisco from sunny Italy and soon after hung his shingle outside his office door in Columbus avenue (then Montgomery avenue). The Italian colony was at that time comparatively small, and the few Italian professional men that were here were waging a bitter war against each other, each of them hoping thus to get whatever patronage there was. And as Dr. De Lucis had gained much distinction in Italy both as a practitioner and author of several important scientific publications as his Semiology of the Lungs and Heart, Tuberculosis of the Brain, Ossification, and others, which had attracted the attention of the medical world, so he soon enough became the target for the poison-tipped arrows flung at him from ambush. But Dr. De Lucis being of a nature not easily to be dismayed, stood his ground and took no notice of the anonymous onsets, went straight to work and devoted himself to suffering humanity. The result was that in a comparatively brief time his merit was recognized by everyone both as a doctor and a learned man, and from there on he rose rapidly in the profession. Endowed with an iron constitution, a scholar, who unites the love of study with a disposition to active employment--two qualities which are seldom found in the same man--possessing a mind elevated above sordid views, indefatigable activity and constancy, which no disappointment, no misfortune could ever shake, eminently qualified him to occupy first place in his profession among his countrymen. And today the name of Dr. De Lucis stands as that of a beloved and revered benefactor among the Italians of California, many of whom bless his name every day for having prolonged their lives. The wonderful success attained by Dr. De Lucis can only be measured by the confidence which the larger part of the Italian community and many Americans repose in him, and the great esteem in which he is held in his own native town and among the most eminent scientific men in Italy, as Professor Guido Baccelli, former Minister of Public Education, Profession Morselli, Cesare Lombroso, De Renzi, Maragliano, Concats, and other not less distinguished cultors of the medical science. During office hours the waiting rooms are always crowded with suffering people seeking relief from Dr. De Lucis’ knowledge, stored by him in fifty years of practice and many more of continuous study. In private life he is very much esteemed and liked by his friends. Being endowed with jovial spirits he relishes the pleasure of society and he entertains lavishly at his villa in Kentfield, Marin county, during the summer months, and in his mansion in San Francisco during the winter. Among his acquaintances he loves to unbend his mind from the severer cares by indulging in familiar conversation, and the sallies, wit and humor to which he has a strong propensity, notwithstanding the grave tone of his general character, are always a treat to his hearers.
Dr. De Lucis was born in Mondovi, an ancient and picturesque city in the province of Cuneo, northern Italy. After graduating from the high school and higher courses at the National College and Royal Lyceum Beccaria in Mondovi, he attended the university of Palermo and Genoa and finally was graduated from the University of Turin in 1881. As soon as he received his diploma, Dr. De Lucis decided to devote himself to his profession and forthwith entered the Italian army as lieutenant in the medical staff, where he remained for several years in the military hospitals at Palermo, Genoa and Alexandria. From then on his career was rapid and brilliant, and his fame as a physician and surgeon began to soar by leaps and bounds. So much so that in 1884 Agostino Depretis, then premier of Italy, to whom the name of the young doctor was not known, appointed Dr. De Lucis as director of the government pesthouse near Busea, when the cholera broke out in the province of Cuneo, taking so many lives. At the end of the terrible scourge, Dr. De Lucis was highly commended by the Italian government and King Humbert wished to congratulate personally the young and distinguished doctor. We may say that the same spirit of abnegation and humanity that he exhibited then, animated him also in 1918 when the flu broke out in San Francisco. Dr. De Lucis then knew no rest in his endeavor to bring relief to many afflicted by the dangerous epidemic and many today owe him their lives for his prompt and successful treatment.
Dr. De Lucis later on was appointed professor of Natural Science in the public schools. Yet his dynamic vigor was not exploited in the discharge of his professional duties--attending to his numerous clientele, visiting daily the hospitals and teaching in schools, and he was looking for other fields to place his intelligence and ingenuity at the service of mankind. It was at that time that he inaugurated the Warm Springs at the Sanctuary of Mondovi, which today are renowned throughout Italy for their beneficial and invigorating power.
In 1894 a compelling desire to enrich his mind with knowledge of foreign countries lured him to cross the Atlantic and he came to San Francisco, having decided also to visit the Orient. But he was soon attracted by our beautiful climate, the picturesque character of our city, the hospitality and adventurous spirit of its citizens and the magnificent bay and seven hills of San Francisco, the first resembling that of Naples, the latter those historic hills of Rome. And Dr. De Lucis concluded that living here was almost like living in Italy and went no farther. And he has remained here ever since, but for the interval of several months in 1921, when he paid a visit to his native land and received such an enthusiastic reception in his home town befitting only a returning conqueror, and accorded only a few statesmen, scientific men and great artists at the zenith of their career and popularity. All the people of Mondovi were at the depot awaiting his arrival--the arrival of their generous and honorable fellow citizen, who during the long years of his voluntary exile never forgot for a single instant the city in which he was born.
Dr. De Lucis loves Italy intensely, with that pure and holy love which swells the breast of every true Italian man, but he also loves America ardently. And as an American citizen he has sincerely at heart the welfare and prosperity of the United States, and at the outbreak of the war he entered the volunteer medical service of the United States Medical Corps, approved by the Council of National Defense and President Wilson, and was enrolled as a member November 9, 1918. Thus we say that such men as Dr. De Lucis greatly contribute to increase the prestige of Italy abroad, because in honoring themselves they honor their native country.
(From San Francisco Tribune, August 21, 1925.)
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 3 Pages 111-114.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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