Longtime Allegan County physician “Larry LaGattuta died Friday, Oct. 13, at the age of 93.
He stayed on the planet much longer than any of his family expected. He was happily married for 59 years to the love of his life, Dottie.
Larry was born in 1930 in Antwerp, Belgium, to American parents. They returned to the States on the last boat out of Belgium at the outset of World War II and settled in New Jersey. When he was in high school, his family moved to Mexico City, where he attended the American School and mastered his Mexican accent. When Larry was 14 years old, both he and his best friend, Ron Peterson, decided to become doctors. They both followed through with their plans.
After a stint in the US Army during the Korean War, where he served behind a desk in England, Larry returned to America, finished his undergraduate education at Rutgers and then graduated from Boston University Medical School
In the mid 1960s, as a surgical resident, he met Dottie, a young nurse, in the Emergency Room at Detroit Receiving Hospital. They married in 1964 and in 1968 moved to Allegan, where he spent the rest of his life.
With Dr. Harry Schneiter, Larry formed the Allegan Medical Clinic to bring primary care services, family practice, OB, urgent care, and surgery to the residents of Allegan and the surrounding areas, He established an ICU unit at the Allegan General Hospital so that acute care cases could be handled in Allegan rather than sent to larger hospitals in Kalamazoo or Holland. He attracted many talented physicians to Allegan and forged lifelong friendships with his colleagues and patients along the way.
As the only surgeon in a 20-mile radius, he always carried his beeper and was on call every night. Many mornings his family had no idea that he had spent much of the night in the operating room performing an emergency c-section or an appendectomy.
During retirement, his weekly Wednesday morning breakfasts with his colleagues from the Allegan Medical Clinic became a highlight of his week. In 2021, the city of Allegan named “LaGattuta Lane,” and “Schneiter Blvd” to honor the contributions of the two physicians who expanded the healthcare services in the small town of Allegan. One of the heartbreaks of his life was seeing the dismantling of the medical care that he helped build in Allegan.
He purchased 18 acres of what many believed to be swamp land by the Kalamazoo River on Monroe Road in Allegan in 1970. By shifting some earth around, he was able build the homestead of his dreams. He was an untrained builder, but that did not stop him from building a barn. He fearlessly delved into farming, again with zero experience, and raised chickens and cattle. When he bought his first two young steers to raise for beef, he worried that his animal-loving children would become too attached. To prevent any tearful misunderstandings, he named them “Burger Chef” and “McDonald’s.”
Larry revitalized the family cabin on Bass Lake in Traverse City, added indoor plumbing and electricity, all before the existence of YouTube. The “cabin” eventually became the “cottage,” The cottage on Galvin Road was not only his building project, it was the location for many family gatherings, his peaceful fly-fishing escape, and ultimately his favorite place on Earth.
He loved speaking in foreign accents to his friends, his colleagues, over the Allegan General Hospital PA system, and to any poor telemarketer who happened to call the LaGattuta landline.
He is survived by his wife, Dottie; his four children, Suzanne (Jim), David (Pam), Diana, and Daniel (Evelina); his grandchildren, Carrie, Amanda, Erica, Kyle, Joseph, Alaina, Sophia; Great grandchildren, George, Cian, Juniper, and Aurora.
He was preceded in death by his three siblings, Joseph, Margaret (Peggy), and Patricia and his daughter-in-law, Beth LaGattuta.
Memorial contributions should be directed to Wings of Hope Hospice or Wings Home. Celebration of life will be held at a later date
