The Big Potato and Molly
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Felix A. Conte, MD
1935 - 2024
Felix A. Conte, MD
1935 - 2024
Professional tributes:
Pediactric Endocrine Society - In Memorium: Felix Conte
The Journal of the Association of Genetics Technologists - A Tribute to Dr. Conte
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Remembrances:
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Obituary:
After several decades of predicting his imminent death to anyone who would listen, Felix Conte was finally correct.
On December 4, 2024, Dr. Felix A. Conte of San Rafael, CA, passed away peacefully with family by his side. He was 89.
Felix, aka Fillie, Felice, and The Big Potato, was born in 1935 in Pittsburgh, PA. He was raised in the Bronx by his mother Josie and her extended Italian-American family. His father Angelo worked in a post office in Pittsburgh and would visit the Bronx on weekends. The time he spent with his father led to Felix's lifelong love of both the Pittsburgh Steelers and the New York Yankees.
Felix grew up the oldest of three children. His brother Joe became a dentist while his sister Jackie was a teacher who raised three kids.
Felix attended Stuyvesant High School in NYC and Columbia University. He played football in college, by which we mean he was the 4th-string center on a team that won a single game his senior year. His crowning achievement may have been giving future Hollywood star Brian Denehey his football pants which were too large for him, but that didn't diminish his happiness and pride at being on the team.
After college Felix attended medical school at NYU and soon met the nurse Mary Cronemeyer who would become his wife. Until his final days he professed that Mary was the love of his life and the best person he knew.
At NYU he also met doctors Melvin Grumbach and Selna Kaplan. After two years in the Army, Felix followed Mel and Selna to California in 1968 to form the core of the new pediatric endocrinology department at UCSF. He then spent the next 48 years of his career happily arguing with Selna and Mel.
Among Felix’s professional accomplishments as a scientist was the discovery that cells from a fetus can transfer to the mother. This finding has led to simple maternal blood tests for several fetal abnormalities.
At the hospital Felix was loud, with a pocket full of bubble gum and three jokes that he would tell in rotation. However, at home he was quiet and introverted. He once said that "Big Felix" was an act he put on at the hospital because it was what he felt he needed to do in order to be a good doctor.
The kids who came to UCSF for treatment were Felix’s primary focus. He would not have understood the phrase "work-life balance" because being a doctor was his life. Felix spent most evenings at the kitchen table dictating patient notes or writing another chapter for a medical textbook, and many nights at the hospital monitoring the vital signs of a sick child.
In retirement Felix’s happiest moments were when former patients would reach out to him with life updates, and his worst moment was when he had to call his patients to tell them that use of human growth hormone had been linked to cancer. It was a great relief to him when his former patients said they still would have taken the treatment even knowing the risk.
But Felix would say his true biggest achievement in life was convincing Mary to marry him.
In 1970 Felix and Mary bought the house where they would spend the rest of their lives. In his downtime Felix enjoyed gardening, especially watching his children weed the hill and re-stain the deck. He loved playing basketball and watching his children play it. He loved his set of O-gauge Lionel electric trains. He loved the pinball machine he bought himself as a birthday gift. And he loved “Star Trek” in all its forms beginning with the original TV broadcast in 1966. (“The Next Generation” was his favorite.) In his declining years he would joke that it was nice a stroke had robbed him of his short-term memory because he could re-watch Star Trek and not remember the ending.
Felix was preceded in death by his wife Mary and his brother Joe. He is survived by his sister Jackie, his five children, and 11 grandchildren.
Felix wished for his body to be preserved in glass in the back yard in front of a TV perpetually replaying Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl highlights with fresh Big Macs delivered every day.
Sorry Dad, not gonna happen. Instead a memorial mass will be held Saturday, January 4, 2025 at 11am at St. Isabella’s Church, 1 Trinity Way, San Rafael, CA followed by a reception at noon in the parish hall.
Felix also requested that his memorial include a dozen bare-breasted virgins weeping and wailing. To volunteer, or simply to let the family know you will be attending, please email felixconte@yahoo.com
Mary O. Conte (Cronemeyer)
1938 - 2017
Mary O. Conte (Cronemeyer)
1938 - 2017
Remembrances:
Funeral eulogy by Rob
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Obituary:
Mary Conte (Cronemeyer), 78, of San Rafael, CA, passed away quietly at home on October 4, 2017, with her husband and all five children at her bedside. Her last years were marked by a struggle with progressive supranuclear palsy, a disease that robbed her of her mobility but not her faith.
Mary, affectionately called “Molly” by her family, was born in 1938 in New York City. She grew up on Long Island in Bayside, graduated from Bayside High, Hunter College, and Bellevue School of Nursing where she was elected president of her class.
Mary was a nurse at Bellevue in the early 1960s when Dr. Felix Conte worked up the courage after three years to ask her out. After their sixth date, Mary informed Felix that she had decided to become a nun. Felix proposed on the spot. Mary promptly went on a three-month missionary trip to Mexico before responding. When she returned she accepted his proposal, much to the relief of her future children.
Mary and Felix were married in 1963. Mary wanted ten kids, but after childbirth decided two was enough. Being a good Catholic girl she ended up with five, including at one point a 4-year-old, a 3-year-old, a 2-year-old and a newborn. The family moved west from New York to San Francisco in 1968 for Felix’s job. After one foggy summer in Daly City, the family escaped to Terra Linda where she lived the remaining 48 years of her life.
Though she may not have taken holy orders, Mary radiated a quiet serenity. She was born with grace, lived with grace, and died with grace. To the outside world she appeared prim and proper, but to her family she allowed her humor to shine. Once a year on New Year’s Eve she would delight in giving off-color gifts, a tribute to her mother who started the tradition.
After family the most important thing to Mary was her Catholic faith. For many years she organized and led a weekly prayer group at church.
Mary’s life was defined by service to others. Wherever she saw a need -- at home, at church, at school, in the community -- she was first in line to fill it. She served a stint as president of the Terra Linda Homeowners Association where her proudest achievement was protecting the surrounding hillsides from development.
When a charity called, Mary would say yes and donate whatever was left in their checking account at the end of the month. Felix liked to joke that Mary would have made an excellent Communist -- from each according to their abilities, to each according to their needs.
On a personal level Mary loved dessert, Julie Andrews musicals, the Blessed Virgin Mary, cheese pizza, and changing the TV channel after Felix was asleep, not necessarily in that order. Holidays in the Conte household were marked by a table filled with cakes, pies, and the ubiquitous Jell-o salad. She had a beautiful singing voice, and wherever you were in the home you knew where she was by her song floating through the air.
If Mary had a fault it’s that she would serve others without allowing them to do anything for her in return, even when they wanted to. The irony of being completely dependent on others in the final years of her life was not lost on her.
Mary is survived by her husband of 54 years, five children, ten grandchildren, her brother and sister, and extended family too numerous to count.
The last thing Mary wanted was for anyone to mourn her passing. She viewed her soul rejoining God in Heaven as a joyous event. With that in mind, a celebration of her life will be held at St. Isabella’s Church, 1 Trinity Way, San Rafael, CA on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017 at 10am. A rosary will be said in her honor at 9:45am.
The family asks that in Mary’s memory you eat your favorite dessert, especially if it’s an ice cream sundae.
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