Dr. Gennaro Tisi Dies; UCSD Faculty Member

A funeral Mass will be held at 9:30 a.m. Saturday for Dr. Gennaro M. (Jerry) Tisi, a pulmonary specialist and a founding member of the UC San Diego School of Medicine, who died Thursday at the UCSD Medical Center of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 52.

In 1968, Tisi joined the faculty of the new medical school to develop a division of pulmonary medicine, which is now considered one of the top programs in the country. He wrote “Pulmonary Physiology in Clinical Medicine,” considered the standard text in the field.

Tisi was three times awarded the Kaiser Permanente Excellence in Teaching Award, selected by vote of the university’s medical students.

“Jerry Tisi was recognized at the national level as an outstanding physician and teacher of pulmonary medicine,” said his colleague, Kenneth Moser, the head of the division of pulmonary medicine at UCSD. “He was also a warm and generous person who had had a major impact on the lives of many people.

“He inspired many students to choose academic medicine as a career. His contributions to the development of the UCSD School of Medicine and the pulmonary division have been significant, and he will be missed by many of us as a colleague and close friend.”

Tisi earned his medical degree and completed his internship and residency at Georgetown University Medical School and Hospital. He did post-graduate research work at UC San Francisco.

He also served several years as chief of the pulmonary section at the San Diego Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Tisi is survived by his wife, Margaret Anne; son, Steven Tisi, and daughters, Judith Rowles and Karen Tisi, all of San Diego; parents, Arthur and Anna Tisi, and brother, Arthur J. Tisi, all of New York.

Saturday’s Mass will be at St. Therese Catholic Church, Navajo Road and College Avenue. Graveside services will follow at El Camino Memorial Park in Sorrento Valley. A reception after the services will be held for family and friends at the St. Therese Social Center.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Whispering Winds Catholic Camp, P.O. Box 202054, San Diego.