Arthur C. Fingerle; Thousand Oaks Physician

Arthur C. Fingerle, a Thousand Oaks physician for 37 years, died Tuesday. He was 73.

Born in Essling, Germany, on April 6, 1926, he moved to New York with his family when he was 4.

From 1944 to 1947, he served in the Army in the Aleutian Islands. He later finished high school and attended Atlantic Union College in Massachusetts. On Aug. 14, 1949, he married Catherine Chonkich.

The couple moved to California and Fingerle worked at USC while attending graduate school. He went to medical school at Loma Linda University and completed his residency in Glendale.

Fingerle moved to Thousand Oaks, where he was one of the first doctors in the city. He was a member of the Conejo Oaks Medical Group and then the Lombard Medical Group. He retired last year.

In 1978, he served as president of the American Medical Assn. of Ventura County. He was also a member of the Rotary Club and a director of Los Robles Bank. He owned horses ridden by his children at shows and was a member of the Honda Motorcycle Gold Wing Club.

His wife said the two of them went on a 5,000-mile ride with the motorcycle club to Canada and then Steamboat Springs, Colo.

She said her husband grew orchids and they traveled with the World Orchid Organization to Japan, Rio de Janeiro and Miami.

“He loved everybody,” his wife said, adding that he never thought he would retire because he enjoyed working so much and talking with his patients.

In addition to his wife of 49 years, he is survived by a son, Arthur Jr., of Elk Grove, Calif.; three daughters, Margie Schultz of Simi Valley and Carol Ann and Kathy of Thousand Oaks; two sisters, Irene Hemminger of Essling and Lorrenta Gardner of Malden, Mass.; two brothers, Ernie of Hollyhill, Fla., and Herb of Santa Paula, and one granddaughter.

Donations can be made in Fingerle’s name to the American Diabetes Assn.

Viewing is scheduled from 1 to 2 p.m. Friday at Pierce Brothers Griffin Mortuary in Thousand Oaks. The funeral service will follow at 2 p.m. Fingerle’s longtime friend, Bob Alexander, will officiate. Burial will be at Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village.