VICTOR WARREN FAZIO MD, age 75. Loving husband of Carolyn K.; dear father of Victor W. III, Jane K. (Jeffrey) Powell and David J. (Tami); beloved grandfather of James and Halle Powell, Griffin, Hunter, Talon and Kisandra Fazio; son of the late Victor and Kathleen; brother of the late Joseph; step-brother of Vince Fazio and the late Darrell Fazio and Noeline.
Dr Fazio attended medical school at University of Sydney, Australia. After finishing his surgical training, he came to the United States in 1972 for further specialist surgical training with Dr. Ken Warren at the Lahey Clinic in Boston and with Dr. Rupert Turnbull at The Cleveland Clinic. Dr. Fazio stayed on at The Cleveland Clinic, where he was Chairman of the Department of Colon and Rectal Surgery for 38 years.
Mass of Christian Burial 4:00 pm Monday July 13, 2015 at St. Dominic Catholic Church 19000 Van Aken Blvd., Shaker Heights. Interment Private.
In lieu of flowers, contributions in Dr. Fazio’s memory may be made to Dr. Brian Bolwell’s Leukemia Research and Education Fund c/o The Cleveland Clinic Foundation PO Box 931517, Cleveland, OH 44193-1655
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Rex Marsden
To Carolyn and family. Your husband and father was a wonderful man who will be missed by many people not the least are those who spent their teenage years with him at the Legacy Hostel, Glen Mervyn in Randwick Sydney Australia. I know he will rest in peace and will probably already be discussing with his creator a procedure that puzzled him all his life! may God bless you Carolyn you haven’t just lost your husband but also your best mate.
Rex Marsden
Lindsay Harden
Rex dear,
The first message of condolence for Vic I read is from you. Why am I surprised? You were so close all those years ago and obviously still. I have many fond memories of you both – and all the Glen Mervyn boys. What a wonderful man Vic was to & for so many people.
Fond regards,
Lindsay
Alex. E. Grady Phd & Janice L. Grady
We were fortunate to have known Victor for more than 50 years. One of us (Alex) had previously shared close association with Victor in university undergraduate accommodation provided for the non-metropolitan-based sons of deceased war veterans who had died in, or as a result of, service to the Australian nation.
Our thoughts are with Carolyn and her family in their grief. Vic was a giant of a man in all ways. Their loss must be intense.
We concurrent undergraduates were fortunate to have known him, to have enjoyed his enthusiasms and to have been stimulated by his intellect and personality (especially his sense of humour). In sharing a part of our lives with him we have truly been enriched through that association .
There can be no doubt that the World is a better place through his contributions to it.
Vale Victor Warren Fazio!
linda gorski
To the Fazio family, I had the priviledge to be one of Dr.Fazios scrub nurses at CCF.He was an amazing man and a wonderful teacher.I knew i did a good job when he looked at me and said is this 3-0 chromic and i would say do i look like i just fell off a christmas tree.The medical community has suffered a great loss.God bless his family.
Mary Herrick St. John
I offer my deepest sympathy to the Fazio family. Where I have lost the most talented, compassionate, life-changing surgeon to ever care for me, no one will know the depths of your pain and loss. How exceptional for his family to have such a wonderful person to share their personal lives, even though they had to sacrifice his time away from them to care for patients which he did with such passion. Your family and the patients he touched will truly miss him from this world, but will celebrate his many blessed rewards in heaven far more plentiful than any number of lives he so graciously blessed on earth. God be with your family during your grief.
Holly Wasylyk
Our family is saddened to learn if the loss of one of the greatest colorectal surgeons to touch us.
Dr Fazio reached around the globe to patients others were unable to help.
We will never forget all of his contributions to the patients and their families.
Joe Bialek
Back in 1985 my Mother {Eileen Bialek} was diagnosed with colon cancer. She had been complaining to her PCP for a long time about bleeding occurring in her stools and rectal area. The PCP simply dismissed it as hemorrhoids. She finally sought the opinion of a specialist in this area at the CCF. His name was Dr. Victor Warren Fazio. He diagnosed her and recommended immediate surgery. Needless to say my Mother was really thrown for a loop. But after getting her bearings {and repeating the Rose Kennedy mantra: “I’ll never be vanquished”} she proceeded to undergo the emergency surgical procedure. Dr. Fazio was successful and saved my Mother’s life. All that was required afterword was the routine checkups for any possible reoccurrence. Thank you Victor for what did for my Mother and countless others throughout your career. Enjoy your new existence in that big CCF in the sky. Please pray for us so that we may endure the coming tumult.
I dedicate this song to you…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJsfzu_B464
Joy Noble
I first met Dr. Fazio at the Clinic in 1995. As a young mother of an 18 month old little boy and a Crohn’s patient, I came to see him looking for answers. I will never forget our first meeting…I, filled with delusions of grandeur, and he, the one with the solution that made me angry and afraid. His plan for me was a surgery that I had resolved to not having. Dr. Fazio was very blunt in his delivery of news – he told me to go home and make plans for surgery, or go home and plan my funeral. That conversation changed my life-HE changed my life. Moreso, he GAVE me a life! When I decided to add more children to my family, he connected me with a high risk specialist, and sent a colleague to assist in my c-section and when I was diagnosed with leukemia, he scheduled a phone conference with me leading me toward another specialist to aid in my care. Heaven has truly gained another angel- one with the biggest heart, the gentlest hands and the BEST accent! RIP Dr. Fazio….I owe you everything!
Lindsay Harden
To Carolyn and the family of Victor Fazio,
I read today, in the Sydney Mornng Herald, a detailed and loving obituary for Vic written by Tony Stephens, a long-time respected SMH journalist. And I was deeply moved by Tony’s words who crafted his writing as skillfully and lovingly as Vic obviously did his tools of healing.
I knew them both, along with Rex Marsden and others when they were Legacy tertiary students living at Glen Mervyn in Coogee and we were all giggling Coogee schoolgirls who thought these boys were all so old and wordly-wise at, probably, 19. What wonderful achievements they all made, especially Vic.
You must be so, so proud of him and the wondrous ways in which he helped so many people. How fortunate you have all been to have shared so many years with him.
Kind regards
Lindsay Harden
Mary Molloy
I was very sad to read of Vic Fazio’s death in the SMH last Wednesday 22nd July 2015. I have very fond memories of Vic when he was doing a Cardio-Thoracic surgical term at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney in the late 1960’s. I was a young RN working in the C-T intensive care unit and he was a wonderful, kind and caring Doctor and colleague. I always knew that he would have a very successful career and he certainly proved this. He will be greatly missed.
My thoughts are with his wife and family following their loss.
RIP Vic.
Mary Molloy
Randwick, NSW Australia.
Scott Hockenberry
I was recently deeply saddened by the news of Dr. Fazio’s passing. I am certain there is a very special place for him in Heaven.
I was honored to have the privilege of working with Dr. Fazio during my residency at The Cleveland Clinic. (1989 – 1994) He was a giant in his field, but also such a kind and generous man. His door was always open for his residents and fellows, and outside the hospital he was just one of the guys! I learned more about being a good surgeon and a good person from him than from any of my other teachers. I considered him my mentor.
I have worked hard to pass along his teachings to 20 years of residents which have worked with me in Columbus, Ohio, and in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I am sorry that the news of his death did not reach me sooner. My condolences to his family, his colleagues, and to all that had the pleasure of knowing this great man. He will be missed by so many.
Pam Cordes
I am one of Dr Fazio’s paients, I’m sorry for your loss and our loss as one of his paient’s. He safed my life and did many surgery’s on me since 1994. He was a great and compassionate person and will be truly missed.
Khaled Madbouly
My Deep condolence. Dr Fazio was the magician who taught us magic in colorectal surgery. rest in peace Dr. Fazio
Khaled Madbouly
Egypt
Donna Mittler
I am not sure that you will read this, as some time has passed and I just received notice of Dr. Fazio’s passing. At the age of 24 after 13 years of severe colitis, Dr. Fazio performed surgery and my life was saved. I am now 60, happy, healthy and have lived a beautiful life so far. Words cannot express the deep respect that I have for such a beautiful man. He was not only brilliant but kind. When I retired from 30 years of teaching I wrote to thank him and much to my surprise, he wrote me back. I was so touched by this generous gesture but it simply confirmed what my husband and I knew him to be : caring, brilliant….human.
Thank you for sharing him with so many of us.
Joe Temple
Although I never met Dr. Fazio I learned a bit about him through his son Victor who I had the pleasure to know in Tiffin, Ohio. Through the years there were often news reports in Cleveland of dignitaries from across the globe coming to the Cleveland clinic for various treatment and often it was to be treated by Dr. Fazio. My deepest sympathy to son Victor and his entire family. Dr. Fazio was one of those individuals to whom we must all aspire. God bless.
Denise Gray Pagani
I came to Cleveland Clinic on Oct. 2,1974. At the age of 23 & weighing only about 50#, I was transferred from a Pgh. Pa. hospital at the insistence of my Mom. The doctors there told my Mom that I was dying. She made the Pgh.doctors transfer me to CCF. I had a temporary Ileo the next day & spent about the next mos. there, recovering & finally getting stronger. I had 9-10 surgeries there over that calendar year. Dr. Fazio told me in Mar. of 1975, that I needed to either make my Ileo permanent or probably die in the next couple of months. At 23, it sounded like the end of the world. Wrong, it was the beginning ! I am now 64 & have had about 22-24 bowel surgeries-all of them done by Dr. Fazio & his team. I just read of his passing & it feels like my rt. arm was cut off. I can’t even imagine how u, his family, feel. Just know that he saved so many people’s lives. He was my surgeon for over 40 yrs. & my friend- even though I’m from Pgh. & a Steeler fan! My condolences to all of your family. Thank u so much for sharing him with us- his grateful patients !
John Rhody
Thank you for saving my life Dr Fazio!! I’ll never forget you! I’ll always remember your “t-shirt check” at each visit, your Aussie sense of humor, your calm, reassuring manner. There’s countless lives saved, or made better because of you. It was you that piqued my interest in Australia-where I lived for a spell. Awesome country, awesome person!! While we are saddened that there will never be another Dr Victor Fazio, remember, we were lucky there was one.
David Doherty
Don’t know if this message will reach anyone but I was very saddened to learn of Dr. Fazio’s passing. I was his patient in 1982 and his skill and compassion changed my life in unimaginable ways. By freeing me from my disease, I was able to help thousands of people in Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and especially Haiti where I have devoted most of the last 14 years to making a difference there. without Dr. Fazio’s “animated support” I would not have been the first ostomate to be accepted into the U.S. Peace Corps. He really knew how to shame people into submission when they were being stubborn and ignorant. He will live on in my thoughts and prayers as one of my true heroes. Sorry for your loss.