Popular UPMC McKeesport surgeon retires; celebration planned

For two generations the name Bondi was synonymous with surgery in McKeesport.

“The Bondi name represented quality and an assurance that things would be done well,” said Dr. David A. Harinstein, chairman of the department of medicine at UPMC McKeesport, who worked with the late Dr. Frank R. Bondi as well as Bondi's son.

“I haven't gone far in life. I work in the building where I was born,” Dr. Richard P. Bondi recalled as friends prepare to honor him on his retirement after 39 years at UPMC McKeesport.

A program is scheduled Friday evening at Youghiogheny Country Club, after a cocktail hour at 5:30 and a dinner buffet at 6:30.

“I worked with him two or three times a week for 39 years,” said certified operating room nurse Sandra Limley of Dravosburg, a scheduled speaker at the Bondi celebration.

“Whenever you came to work and saw you were assigned to Dr. Bondi's (surgical) room you knew you were going to have a good day,” Limley said. “He never got angry. He never raised his voice. He was one of the most patient people I've ever seen, always willing to teach anyone. We did have a surgical residency and he was teaching residents.”

Bondi's residency was followed by three years at Presbyterian University Hospital. Later he would have stints at what became Forbes and Jefferson hospitals, and would help open UPMC East in Monroeville.

During his time at Presby, he got a call from his father, who was chief of surgery at the hospital where the bulk of his career would take place.

“My dad, who was at McKeesport, asked me to come out and give him a hand because it was very busy and he didn't have anyone to help him,” Bondi said. “So I got permission from my boss (at Presbyterian) and started working with him part time. The more I worked at McKeesport, the more I liked working at McKeesport, so things started to shift over, and about 1978 or so I quit working at Presbyterian.”

Bondi treasured working with his father.

“He was probably the best surgeon that I ever worked with,” Bondi said. “Anytime I had any trouble with anything, he would look over my shoulder and he would say, ‘I will show you what to do with it.' It was quite an opportunity.”

And others treasured working with Richard Bondi.

“He was the first general surgeon to do a laparoscopic cholecystectomy in UPMC McKeesport,” registered nurse Diane Reutzel said, referring to a procedure to remove a gall bladder.

It's done using a laparoscope, an instrument that can show the inside of the body, in a series of several small incisions rather than the older process of making one incision 3 to 4 inches wide.

Richard Bondi was there for the decline of the old Tube City.

“It was a very busy place (in the 1970s and 1980s),” Bondi said. “Dorothy 6 blast furnace was still in production (in Duquesne). It was an impressive sight. It would light up that whole end of town at the Duquesne side. Also from the old operating rooms in the Shaw building, I could look out and watch them rolling steel ingots at the National Tube Works, which was also very impressive at night.”

The closing of the steel mills changed things for McKeesport Hospital.

“The hospital still maintained a pretty good base in the community in the Mon Valley and it did hurt us but it certainly didn't kill us,” Bondi said.

Bondi became chairman of the department of surgery at McKeesport Hospital in the early 1990s, before it became UPMC McKeesport in 1998.

“I believe that was a very positive thing for the hospital,” Bondi said. “There may be some who would argue with that, (however) we did have the surgical residents at McKeesport and the American Board of Surgery that oversees residencies wanted us to establish a relationship with some university so the residents would have an academic sort of training.”

“There were some things we did not do there, such as complicated vascular and thorasic work,” Bondi said. “We still really don't do really complicated stuff there. I think it is better to do those in a hospital where they are commonly done. It is always a critical type of surgery.”

At one time UPMC McKeesport's staff included a neurosurgeon, Dr. Michael V. Miklos.

“He used to do full-scale brain surgery at McKeesport,” Bondi said.

Miklos is remembered with a family trust fund that provides scholarships to third- and fourth-year University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine students in need of financial aid.

Harinstein, the department of medicine chair, has worked for 28 years at UPMC McKeesport, primarily with internal medicine.

“(Bondi) was one of the surgeons I would have consulted,” Harinstein recalled. “He's a very thoughtful but quiet individual with a very dry sense of humor. He was very nice to all of the staff at the hospital and just an excellent surgeon.”

What's next? Bondi isn't sure yet. He'll take a couple of months off and decide then.

Patrick Cloonan is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-664-9161, ext. 1967, or pcloonan@tribweb.com.