As a boy, Theodore Compall knew he wanted to be a doctor. By age 7, he pored over medical texts, preparing for the career to which he would eventually dedicate himself.
Dr. Compall, 89, of Chicago’s Norwood Park community, died Sunday, May 29, of complications from diabetes at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, his family said.
Born in Lviv, then Poland, now Ukraine, Dr. Compall and his family immigrated to the United States, arriving at Ellis Island on the SS Veendam in 1925, when the future doctor was 3 years old.
The family, originally called Compala before Americanizing the name, settled in Chicago, where Dr. Compall’s parents owned and operated various businesses, including a millinery in Pilsen and a Wicker Park restaurant and tavern, named after the Polish-penned tome “Quo Vadis,” said Thad Compall, the doctor’s son.
Dr. Compall, the eldest of three sons, graduated from Steinmetz High School. After a stint in the Army, he became the first in his family to attend college. He received his medical degree from Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine in 1947. After graduation, Dr. Compall joined the Air Force, where he worked as the squadron commander of the 6th Tactical Hospital at the now-closed Walker Air Force Base in Roswell, N.M.
In 1955, Dr. Compall returned to Chicago, where he settled into the Northwest Side home where he would raise his family. He established his medical practice at 5645 N. Milwaukee Ave., where he practiced until 2003, when he retired, his son said.
Dr. Compall also worked at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital, now known as Sts. Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center, and later was a founding physician at Holy Family Hospital, now known as Holy Family Medical Center, his family said. At the hospitals, he was a general surgeon, on call to take all types of cases, including pro bono work for clients who couldn’t afford medical care.
“He was fascinated with putting people back together and making them healthy,” said his son Thad. “It was his way of reinstilling the spirit of life in people.”
After working up to 16-hour days, the doctor would come home and read medical journals and texts, keeping himself up-to-date on new techniques and medical findings, Thad Compall said.
That diligence didn’t go unnoticed by hospital staff members, who recognized Dr. Compall as a scholarly man with steady hands and a kind bedside manner.
“He always seemed so intelligent and yet so down to earth with his patients,” said Sister Amata Sweeney, 88, a past president of Holy Family who worked with Dr. Compall.
The hospital not only anchored his professional life, but it also anchored his personal life. Dr. Compall met his wife of nearly 60 years, Lillian, while she was a nurse and he was beginning his career at St. Mary’s, Thad Compall said.
Dr. Compall also served for more than three decades as the medical director of the Polish Roman Catholic Union of America, overseeing and reviewing the medical histories of those applying for life insurance through the fraternal organization, said Edward Dykla, a president emeritus of the organization who worked with Dr. Compall.
Despite all of his professional commitments, Dr. Compall made time for his family — he brought the kids along on house calls. On Sundays, he gathered the family at Holy Family for church in the chapel, followed by lunch in the hospital cafeteria before being called to surgery or to do his rounds, Thad Compall said.
In his neighborhood, the doctor was known for his green thumb. His vegetable garden was robust with carrots, tomatoes and string beans — all grown organically before it became a fad.
In addition to his wife and son Dr. Compall is survived by two brothers, Mark and John; sons Tom and John; seven grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Services were held.
