A colleague of mine died last Thursday. You can read about him below. What the obituary doesn’t say is how sweet, kind, and humble he was. He died suddenly while vacationing, presumably either of a heart attack or perhaps an aneurism.
We always think about love when people die. Who they love and who loved them and the awful grief and sense of personal loss. All of this is present here, of course. In this case, though, I also think about the loss of all of that skill and knowledge. In this man, we had a very highly regarded doctor and an Episcopal priest. The artist Laurie Anderson speaks of the death of her father like this: “When my father died, it was like a whole library burned to the ground.”
Rest in peace Larry DePalma–and may God be with your family and friends.
DEPALMA, DR. RALPH LAWRENCE “LARRY,” M.D., age 45, of Mountain Brook, died June 8, 2006, in Seaside, Fla. DePalma was born March 23, 1961, in Seville, Spain. He grew up in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, attended University School and was an Eagle Scout. He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1983 and received his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia in 1989. He completed an internship in general surgery and his residency in psychiatry at the Medical College of Virginia. He served as chief resident during his time in training. He was an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Alabama at Birmingham from 1994 to 2000. For the past eight years, he worked at the Alabama Psychotherapy Wellness Center, where he managed medication and provided therapy to patients. He participated in the Birmingham Psychoanalytic Study Group. He also received a master of divinity from the University of the South in 2003 and was ordained that year as an Episcopal priest. He attended St. Luke’s Episcopal Church and was a member of the choir. Survivors include his wife, Rebecca DePalma of Birmingham; daughters, Katherine Alexandra DePalma and Elizabeth Lawrence DePalma, both of Birmingham; son, Blanton Webb DePalma of Birmingham; mother, Maleva T. DePalma of McLean, Va.; father, Dr. Ralph L. DePalma of McLean, Va.; sisters, Maleva Beth DePalma Dorsey of Redwood City, Calif., and Malinda Grace DePalma Helms of Charlotte, N.C.; brother, Edward Frank DePalma of San Francisco, Calif.; brothers-in-law, Patrick Dorsey and David Helms; niece, Emily Dorsey; nephews, Nicholas Dorsey and Robert Helms; father-in-law, Joseph John Garity; and mother-in-law, Kate S. Garity, both of Birmingham.