Local Physician John Joseph Molitor Dies : Obituary: He had been chief of staff at St. Jude Medical Center’s obstetrics department until last year.

John Joseph Molitor, a physician for 36 years and chief of staff of St. Jude Medical Center’s obstetrics department until his retirement, died Sunday of cardiac arrest. He was 67.

“He was a gentle man, a gifted teacher and a physician who truly epitomized the qualities in a physician we would all wish to emulate,” the UC Irvine obstetrics department said in a released statement. Molitor had served as president of Assn. of Volunteer Faculty there until his death.

Molitor was born in Chicago. He received his medical degree from Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University in Chicago, and in 1958 he moved to California to begin a private practice. At the same time, he held volunteer faculty appointments at USC and UCI.

After retiring from St. Jude last year, he joined the UCI Medical Center as a volunteer clinical professor.

His passion in his spare time was growing fruit, his son Christopher said.

“He has about 20 fruit trees in the back yard,” said Christopher Molitor.

Molitor and his wife, Cynthia, have three daughters and five sons. They are Nancy, Susan and Kathleen; and Christopher, John, Daniel, Peter and Joseph. He is also survived by a brother, James, and a sister, Joan, both of Fullerton, and four grandchildren.

Mass will be celebrated at 7 tonight at St. Juliana’s Catholic Church in Fullerton. A reception will follow at St. Jude Medical Center at the Sara and Robert Erickson Health Education Center. Public graveside services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Loma Vista Memorial Park in Fullerton.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the UCI Medical Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Attention: Dr. Garite, P.O. Box 14091, Orange, CA. 92613-1491 for an annual lectureship on medical ethics to be established in honor of Molitor.