Frank A. Iula, a physician in Mt. Ephraim since '50s

Frank A. Iula, 82, of Haddon Heights, a family physician in Mount Ephraim for more than 52 years, died of prostate cancer March 7 at home.

Dr. Iula continued to see patients while battling cancer and Parkinson's disease until falling in August. He had hoped to recover and return to work and refused to retire, said his daughter, Maria Bezich.

He still made occasional house calls and took the time to talk with patients, she said. At his viewing Wednesday night, she said, several of his patients told her that they had lost their best friend.

Dr. Iula decided to be a doctor after his mother died of a long illness when he was 8. He was raised by an aunt and uncle in Vineland, N.J., and graduated from Vineland High School, where he was class president. An accomplished musician, he earned money as a teenager playing the piano and accordion in local nightclubs.

During World War II, Dr. Iula served in the Army as a guard at a facility for German prisoners of war in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The Germans were so grateful for his compassion, his daughter said, that they made him a new uniform.

After his discharge, Dr. Iula earned a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University. Though he graduated with honors, so many veterans were applying to medical school that he couldn't get in, his daughter said. At a friend's suggestion, he enrolled in medical school at the University of Bologna - and learned Italian while earning his degree.

Dr. Iula completed an internship at West Jersey Hospital in Camden and was an obstetrics and gynecology resident for a year at Bucks County Hospital.

For more than 30 years, Dr. Iula was a deacon at St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Haddon Heights, assisting with liturgies, distributing Communion, giving homilies at Mass, presiding over marriages, and baptizing the faithful. In the 1970s, he and his wife, Rose DiToma Iula, helped establish the Catholic Pentecostal movement in Camden County. She died in 1992.

Dr. Iula enjoyed golf and had been a member of Tavistock Country Club in Haddonfield for 40 years.

His greatest passion was his physically and mentally disabled son, John, whom he cared for at home for 46 years. Tending to his son's needs, Dr. Iula rarely got more than three or four hours' sleep a night, his daughter said.

In addition to his son and daughter, Dr. Iula is survived by another son, Frank; three sisters; and three grandsons.

A Funeral Mass was said Thursday at St. Rose of Lima Church in Haddon Heights. Burial was in Sacred Heart Cemetery, Vineland.

Memorial donations may be made to the Autism Association of America, Southwest New Jersey Chapter, 10 Shadow Oak Court, Mount Laurel, N.J. 08054.