Harold R. Mancusi-Ungaro, Jr. – 50th Reunion Essay

Harold R. Mancusi-Ungaro, Jr.

7960 Soquel Dr, Suite B-271

Aptos, CA 95003-3999

hmumd@aya.yale.edu

707-235-1689

Spouse(s): Carol (1970–1988), Susan (1988)

Child(ren): Harold Themistocles (1979, Yale ’02), Marianna (1982, Yale ’04)

Grandchild(ren): Mancusi-Ungaro: Themistocles (2010), Leonidas (2013, Constantine (2015), Augustus (2018); Concetta & Lucia Chapleau 2017

Education: Yale BA ’69, MD ’73

Career: Resident, General Surgery, Yale–New Haven Hospital 1973–76; Research Consultant, Plastic Surgery, VA Wadsworth Hospital Center 1976–77; Resident, General Surgery, Henry Ford Hospital 1977–79; Resident, Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston 1979–82; Assistant Professor of Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston 1982–1986; Assistant Professor of Surgery, Director, University Burn Center, The University of Colorado 1986–88; Associate Professor and Chief of Plastic Surgery, The University of New Mexico 19888–90; Private Practice, Plastic Surgery, Beaumont, Texas 1990–2002; Plastic Surgeon, The Permanente Medical Group, 2002–15, Chief of Plastic Surgery 2003–2015, Chief of Cosmetic Services 2005–2015, Chair of the Regional Council of Chiefs of Plastic Surgery 2010–15.

Avocations: Food & Wine, Traveling, Photography, Bicycling; sometimes skiing and fishing

College: Morse

Aptos, California – 2018: far from where I was born in New Jersey. Growing up, I had two goals: #1 go to Yale and #2 be a doctor—Yale because of my Dad (’40) and the latter because I am the 13th generation. Yale granted me both. College taught me to seize opportunities.

Yale School of Medicine followed Yale College and inspired a career in academic plastic surgery. I stayed that course for about 20 years. In the process, I married twice and sired two children (Harold Themistocles, ’02 and Marianna, ’04). By 1990 I had achieved my academic goal. As chief of plastic surgery at the University of New Mexico, I was in charge of a teaching program preparing others to follow their inspirations. But, by the time of our 25th, I had left academia for the private practice of plastic surgery in Beaumont, Texas. I was working for myself and enjoying it, until another opportunity struck.

In 2002, I joined Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa, California, the Sonoma County seat: Wine Country. Wines had become a hobby. So, for both opportunity and geography, I again went to work for someone else. There, other opportunities followed. I ended my career as chief of plastic surgery and cosmetic services in Santa Rosa, and as chair of the chiefs of plastic surgery for the Permanente Medical Group. I retired in January 2015, after 33 years of three very different practices.

Retired, I have picked up where I left off in college. I was a history of art major and photographer for the Yale Banner. I now travel to those places I studied. I remember studying Prague the year the Soviets entered, thinking, “There is a city I will never see.” But I did, in 2017. Photography is again a serious hobby. While the bicycle was my transportation in college, it is now recreation through vineyards, coastline, and the backroads of Europe.

We left Santa Rosa in January 2018 to live at the beach in Aptos, California. We bought the house on a whim in 2017, another opportunity. Then, the fires hit Santa Rosa that October. While our house was spared, some 5,000 others were not. So, we loaned it to a less fortunate former colleague.

Fifty years after graduation, I have been lucky. I have had wonderful opportunities. I have done what I set out to do, although not how I thought I might do it. I have been able to give my children the opportunity of a Yale education. I can only wish for them and their children similar fortune and opportunities. I do thank Yale. Parenthetically, as we meet for our reunion, I will be concluding my two-year term as president of the Association of Yale Alumni in Medicine—payback.

I often think of life in song lyrics. So, add to “Bright College Years… Oh, why doth time so quickly fly?” the words of Garth Brooks, “I’m much too young to be this damned old.”