Dr. Robert J. Freel, 60, of Palatine, a longtime pathologist at Northwest Community Health Care in Arlington Heights, died Tuesday in his home after a long battle with cancer.
He was a graduate of Marquette University and Marquette University Medical School in Milwaukee. He completed his residency at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where he specialized in anatomical and clinical pathology. During the course of his 30-year career, Dr. Freel enjoyed clinical pathology because it allowed him to help diagnose disease by measuring chemicals and cells.
“Looking through the microscope was his thing,” said his wife of 31 years, Peg Freel. “He was a meticulous worker who spent hours going over slides so that patients would be treated correctly.”
After his residency, Dr. Freel served two years in the Air Force in the Vietnam War.
He moved to Chicago and worked at Mercy Hospital in Aurora before he accepted a position in 1974 at the Arlington Heights hospital.
Other survivors include two daughters, Ann and Susan, and a brother, James. Visitation will be from 4 to 9 p.m. Thursday in Smith-Corcoran Funeral Home, 185 E. Northwest Highway, Palatine. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in St. Thomas of Villanova Catholic Church, 1152 E. Anderson Drive, Palatine.
