McNalley, Hoag Cardiologist, Dead at 68

Dr. Michael C. McNalley, who founded Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian’s cardiology department and personally raised money to build a cardiac catheterization laboratory at the Newport Beach hospital, has died. He was 68.

The Kansas native, who died Tuesday, is credited with developing the department into one of the nation’s leading heart care facilities, an achievement related in no small part to his personal dedication to staff recruitment and training, colleagues said.

“He built that department from the ground up and made it the best,” said Dr. Jim Witwer, a retired orthopedic surgeon and former chief of staff at Hoag. “His work left a lasting legacy for the medical community.”

McNalley moved to Corona del Mar in 1970 from the University of Tennessee Medical School in Memphis, where he was an associate professor of cardiology. Prior to that, he practiced cardiology at the Wichita Clinic and served in the Army for two years in Germany. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas and completed his cardiology training at the University of Colorado.

After establishing Hoag’s cardiology department, McNalley entered private practice in 1973 and remained on the hospital staff until 1995, when he retired from medicine. His son, Thomas, said his father had planned to travel and fish, but became ill later that same year. McNalley fought, and eventually beat, lung cancer but finally succumbed to secondary effects of the disease, his son said Friday.

“He was an incredible man and father, and his humor and wit always kept such a warm, happy atmosphere in our house,” he said. “He would tell these stories at the dinner table and all five of us kids would be laughing like crazy. He just loved to have fun.”

McNalley was especially devoted to his profession, and his colleagues said he would never hesitate to come to the hospital to help, regardless of whose patient it was. Witwer, who will be a pallbearer at McNalley’s funeral, said his friend’s generous spirit was widely respected at Hoag and throughout Orange County’s medical community.

“He always was an old-fashioned doctor,” Witwer said. “He never worried about whether the patient could pay or how the patient was going to pay, he just worried about the patient. I can’t say enough about that. I’ve always respected him for that.”

McNalley is survived by his wife of 43 years, Sharon Cook McNalley, five children and 11 grandchildren.

A funeral service is scheduled for Monday at 11 a.m. at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Newport Beach. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Community Partners, FBO Hutchins Consort, 1948 Port Ramsgate, Newport Beach, CA 92660.