”When I first applied for admission to PCOM, Dr. Cipolla was a member of the interview
committee. He asked me only one question: ‘Do you know who invented spaghetti?’ And
I said, ‘No.’ ‘Well,’ he told me, ‘the Chinese actually invented spaghetti, not the
Italians.’ And that was the extent of our interaction. … The next time I saw him was
in the fall of 1977, in my first anatomy lecture held in Evans Hall (now known as
the Howard A. Hassman, DO ’83 Academic Center). His opening line was, ‘You gotta know
your anatomy, boy, or the guy down the street will.’… The anatomy lab was at 48th
and Spruce Streets, where the old hospital used to be. The anatomy lab was almost
like an attic, with the smell of formaldehyde everywhere. It had a great feel to it.
… You had to wear a tie, which on the surface seems absurd. But I think in part the
reason was Dr. Cipolla’s profound respect for the people who had donated their bodies
to medical science. In my kind of rebellious way, I would wear a flannel shirt with
a tie. One day, early on, Dr. Cipolla just kind of looked at me and grinned, and then
that was it. … In anatomy lab, you have partners, you’d be helping each other out.
And every once in a while, I’d turn around and, over my shoulder, he’d be there, listening.
… I loved anatomy. I would often go down to the lab on Saturdays. Dr. Cipolla asked
me one day, ‘Why are you here all the time?’ I said, ‘It’s a chance to have the cadaver
all to myself. I don’t have to share it with my lab partners.’ He got a kick out of
that. … Over the course of time, he’d walk around during lab, and he’d ask one table
an anatomy question, and if they didn’t get it, he’d say, ‘Hey, Feldstein. You know
the answer.’ So we had this mutual respect, an intellectual understanding. … He was
a general surgeon in the Medical Corp and he would throw in tidbits, with clinical
correlation, during anatomy lectures—practical examples of what you were learning.
… He could be difficult; he was as eccentric as they come—definitely the type of individual
you either loved or hated. Had I struggled in anatomy, it might not have been as much
fun. But he was brilliant.”
Digest, the magazine for alumni and friends of Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, is published by the Office of Marketing and Communications. The magazine reports on osteopathic and other professional trends of interest to alumni of the College’s Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) and graduate programs at PCOM, PCOM Georgia and PCOM South Georgia.
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