Siskiyou County
Biographies
L. J. LISTA, M. D.
As
a representative of the medical profession, Dr. L. J. Lista is held in high
esteem throughout Siskiyou County, having built up a large practice at Mount
Shasta, where he is recognized as one of the ablest physicians and most
skillful surgeons who has ever practiced in this section of the state. He was born in Italy, on the 2nd
of January, 1896, and is a son of Joseph and Mary (Secreto) Lista. His father was long prominent in educational
work, having served as a professor of philosophy, but later he turned his
attention to commercial affairs, with which he was identified to the time of
his death, in 1929. The mother still
lives in Italy.
Dr.
Lista attended the public schools of his native country, and in 1913, when
seventeen years of age, came to the United States. Locating in West Virginia, he attended grade
school and high schools, after which he entered George Washington University. Soon afterwards the United States became
involved in the World War and he enlisted in the Signal Corps, being sent to
the training school at Burlington, Vermont, where he remained until the signing
of the Armistice, when he was honorably discharged. For a while he taught in the Emerson
Institute, in Washington, D. C., and served as assistant secretary of the young
Men’s Christian Association of that city, teaching Spanish, French and
Latin. His original desire had been to
enter the medical profession, but he now turned his attention to the study of
law, attending the National University Law School for one year. By that time he had determined to devote his
life to the practice of the healing art, to which end he entered the medical
school of George Washington University, and later, the medical department of
the University of Maryland. Prior to
that he had taken a course in George Washington University and received the
degree of Bachelor of Arts. He now went
to Europe in order to round out his medical education, attending the summer
sessions of the liberal arts department of the University of Siena, after which
he entered the medical department of that university as an intern in
surgery. He also did post-graduate work
in Vienna, Venice and Naples, and in 1928 returned to the United States. Locating in Oakland, California, he became
resident physician of the Alameda County Hospital, where he served from
September, 1928, until June, 1929, when he entered upon the private practice of
his profession in that city. Shortly
afterward he came to Mount Shasta, where he has since conducted a general
practice in medicine and surgery. He
prefers surgery, however, as his special field of practice and has performed a
number of the most successful major operations in this section of the
state. The people of Mount Shasta are
now engaged in a campaign for the erection of a hospital, to cost one hundred
thousand dollars, which will be under the management of Dr. Lista.
In
1919 Dr. Lista was united in marriage to Miss Hazel Beatrice Weekley, of
Clarksburg, West Virginia, who received a college education. They are the parents of a daughter,
Mary. Dr. Lista is a member of the
American Legion and the Alpha Kappa Kappa medical fraternity. He is also affiliated with the Siskiyou
County Medical Society, the California State Medical Society and the American
Medical Association. He is closely
devoted to his professional work, of which he is a constant student, and takes
a sincere interest in the personal welfare of every patient, without regard to
their social standing or their ability to pay for his services. He is a kindly and genial man, possessing to
a marked degree those qualities which inspire confidence on the part of the
sick, and all who know him hold him in the highest esteem.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Wooldridge, J. W. Major, History of
Sacramento Valley California, Vol. 2 Pages 340-343. Pioneer Historical
Publishing Co. Chicago 1931.
© 2010 Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden
Nugget Library's Siskiyou County Biographies