Foundation Update

Dear NLA Membership,

Ordinarily the Foundation Update is reserved for informing the NLA membership about Foundation initiatives; however, this issue we want to dedicate this section of the LipidSpin to Ralph Vicari, MD, FNLA. Dr. Vicari was the President-Elect of the Foundation and great friend to many. Paul Ziajka, MD, FNLA knew Dr. Vicari well and has written the dedication below to honor his memory.

On May 26, 2017 clinical lipidology and the Foundation lost a great friend and advocate — Dr. Ralph Michael Vicari died at the age of 64.  At the time of his death he was President-Elect of the Foundation of the National Lipid Association (FNLA), a fellow of the NLA and a practicing cardiologist / lipidologist in the Melbourne Florida area.

Ralph was born and raised in Chicago. He attended Notre Dame as an undergraduate, received his MD from Loyola, did his internal medicine residency at Georgetown and completed his cardiology fellowship at Rush Presbyterian. He was very active in cardiovascular research and served twelve years as the Research Director for Melbourne Internal Medicine Associates. He was principle investigator for more than 150 research studies and authored or co-authored more than two dozen papers in peer reviewed journals including the Journal of Clinical Lipidology and the New England Journal of Medicine. Ralph’s passion was primordial prevention and he worked constantly with the Brevard County School system, the FNLA and the Florida Committee of SELA to advocate CVD risk reduction in children and adolescents.

I’ve known Ralph since 1987 when I did a pharma speaking program in Melbourne. After the presentation we spent over an hour discussing / arguing the relative importance of LDL-C versus HDL-C, and that meeting led to a 30 year friendship. Ralph was one of the original members of the Florida  Lipid Associates  (FLA) that was formed later that same year. He served as the head of various committees of the FLA, became President when the FLA turned into the Florida Lipid Foundation (FLF) and was instrumental in transferring the not-for-profit status of the FLF to the Foundation of the NLA when it was formed. He was very active in the Florida Committee of SELA and was a past chairman.

Ralph’s medical and scientific credentials were outstanding but what made him a great man and friend to so many was his character, his sense of humor and his comradery.  When I think about Ralph I get this kaleidoscope of images and memories — his infectious smile, his contagious laugh, his “Luigi jokes”, his love of fine Italian food, Klasuv Sklipek (a Slovak restaurant in the Chicago outskirts) and his willingness to help with any project.

Anne asked me to include some personal anecdotes about Ralph. There are literally hundreds of pleasant / interesting /amusing stories I could tell but I’ll limit myself to two that come to mind immediately.

During the early years of the FLA Ralph was very involved with our educational programs. At one of our meeting we held a debate about whether statins worked to reduce CVD by their lipid effects or whether there were some other “magic dust” properties involved (I was on the lipid side). There were two lipidologists on each side for a structured point / counterpoint presentation and Ralph was the moderator and was charged with keeping the program on schedule. He brought an air horn - the kind used in football stadiums - if you went 15 seconds over your allotted time he’d honk it.  If you didn’t stop speaking he’d throw sponge rubber “bricks” at you until you left the podium!

The last time I saw Ralph was at the Foundation strategic planning meeting at the Orlando Airport Hyatt Hotel this past winter. We did our work during the day and then I met Ralph at the hotel bar for a drink. He suggested that we get a taxi and go to International Drive in the heart of Orlando’s tourist district to see a dinner show at “Treasure Tavern.” In retrospect I should have known better. “Treasure Tavern” was a typical cheesy tourist trap with a chicken dinner and a somewhat bawdy show. After the dinner while the show was going on I got pulled up on the stage by the entertainers - I don’t know how but I’m sure Ralph had arranged it.  For the next ten minutes Ralph was roaring with laughter – so hard tears were streaming down his cheeks.

I and a great many other people will miss Ralph very much. He leaves behind his wife of 35 years, two children and four grandchildren.

The Florida Committee of SELA has established a fund to benefit the FNLA in Ralph’s name (for more information call 904-309-6260).