Anthony Joseph Repici, M.D.

1913-1998

Dr. Repici was a pediatrician. To a little girl with mumps or chicken pox or a belly ache, he was a savior, a friend, a comfort. More than once he arrived at our house, bag in hand, and went from room to room caring for my brother and I. We didn't have a car in those days. When I did go to his office, it was always an adventure. One of my aunts would usually drop us off in Haddonfield (we lived in Oaklyn when I first started seeing him) at that house with the really nifty glass brick window. There were plaques on the walls of the waiting room - nursery rhymes like Jack Sprat or Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. To this day I think of Dr. Repici whenever I hear one of them.

When it was time to see him, I was ushered up the hall into an examining room. He always felt my belly, which had a tendency to rebel on me when I got excited about something. Of course there were the vaccinations. If he headed for that refrigerator, I knew I was in for trouble. As was he. I was a fairly well-behaved child, but I can still remember throwing his stethoscope across the room when he tried to give me a vaccination. The man must have been a saint if he could cheerfully put up with behavior like this - or worse - on a daily basis!

Dr. Repici was indeed special. Even as a small child I knew this. Appointments aside, he was often called away to Our Lady of Lourdes in Camden or to one of the other area hospitals, where he did transfusions on newborn "blue babies." My mom said that he was the only doctor in the area who could do it. Even I understood that this was important and don't remember minding the wait until after 11:00 some nights. He was saving lives - somehow a belly ache trifled.

After the examination, we would go into his office, with the big desk and, if I remember rightly, the big leather chairs. He would explain things to my parents, much of which I didn't understand. But he included me - I was important to him.

At the end of the visit, if it was early enough, we would walk up Haddon Avenue to a little restaurant and wait for my aunt to pick us up. While there, I always had Breyer's Vanilla Ice Cream. Something else that will always remind me of Dr. Repici.

Time has passed. When my son and I moved back to Haddonfield in 1980, there was no question that I would take him to Dr. Repici. Sadly, he wasn't practicing actively any more, but his daughter was carrying on the family tradition. Not in the same building, but next door. I could still see those glass bricks.

Dr. Repici was a big part of my childhood, an important part. He earned my lifelong respect and admiration. But I suppose that, as a doctor who loved and cared for kids, he won't mind that I will always think of him as nursery rhymes and ice cream. 

Go to BJ's Camden Hall of Fame
Go to Memories of Haddonfield

Posted 30 January 1998
BJ Swartz
twin-prime@hotmail.com