John Martin McAvoy MD, FACS

January 8, 1947 ~ December 5, 2020

Last week, Dr. John Martin McAvoy, beloved husband, father, and grandfather, passed away peacefully alongside his wife in Santa Rosa, CA as the result of a prior stroke. John was a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in Sonoma County from 1979 until 2015.

He was born in White Plains, New York, where later he was an athlete and Regents Scholar at Archbishop Stepinac High School. He attended Tufts University on an academic scholarship offered by the university, and from a Caddy’s scholarship earned from his years working as a caddy at Westchester Hills Golf Club. His work each summer of his undergrad years included work in an assembly line at a General Motors auto- manufacturing plant in Tarrytown, New York, and later as an officer for the Orleans Police Department in Massachusetts. It was also during this time period that he met his wife, Laurel Ann Streeter, of Hanson, Massachusetts, who was also a student at Tufts.

He gained admittance into Tufts Medical School, and shortly thereafter, he married Laurel in 1969 in Hanson, Massachusetts. Upon his graduation from medical school in 1972, John and his wife went to Los Angeles for his medical internship and residency. There, at UCLA, John ascended from his position as Resident in Surgery in 1972 to the position of Chief Resident in Surgery at UCLA Medical Center in 1976. His hard work there later came to light in a bit by a well- known comedian, who incorporated Dr. McAvoy’s name into the material of one of his standup acts. Given the frequent requests from the loudspeaker for “Dr. McAvoy” to report to various floors of the hospital at all hours of the night, the comedian surmised that the surgeon must have dwelled in the walls there. While at UCLA, John contributed to various surgical journals, but his favorite contribution was perhaps his poem “The Ward Song of J. Elvin Wornout” published in The Annals of Internal Medicine. Paying homage to T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” the poem describes the challenging process of becoming a surgeon. Despite the arduous tasks facing an aspiring surgeon, John admits that, eventually, he himself will “turn the same old page” as his instructors did before him. And, ultimately, the next generations will face the precise struggle he once did.

After serving a residency in plastic and reconstructive surgery at the University of Colorado, John joined an established practice in Petaluma in 1979, and then established his own practice in Santa Rosa in 1981.

As a surgeon, he prided himself in devotion to the well- being of his patients, and enjoyed the habit of “doing the rounds” every Saturday morning to check on them. After these rounds, he typically devoted the rest of his weekend time to his family or work around the house. Work around the house always came with the canine accompaniment of his Labrador, Darryl, or, in later years, Axel. Escapes to Candlestick Park with his family members were frequent, and the San Francisco Giants rewarded John with victories for his first 10 games at the Stick, including a crucial playoff victory in 1989.

Throughout his entire lifetime, John loved the beach. From the days when he and his brother lost car keys in the sands of Jones Beach in Long Island, to introducing his daughter to the shores of Will Rogers’s State Beach, to his final days at Bodega Bay with his wife, John always made times there fun for all around him.

From the 1990s until his passing, he enjoyed barbequing on his homemade deck. Subsequently, he would tell stories with a vigorous passion. Whether it be his account of Mark Lane’s brilliant crossexamination of E. Howard Hunt, his fond recollection of siblings who left Joseph Sr.’ s car abandoned outside the Fore ‘ n’ Aft Bar, or his tale of his triumphantly pulling off his mask and holding up a baseball after a home plate collision against a team from the Bronx, John never ran out of stories to tell.

He was predeceased by his father Joseph Patrick McAvoy, mother Claire Margaret McAvoy, and sister, Patricia Hannan. He is survived by his wife of fifty- one years, Laurel, his brother Joseph McAvoy ( Chris) of Brewster, New York, his daughter Holly Ann of Coronado, California, his son Ian ( Annette) of San Diego, his grandchildren Eva and Easton McAvoy, and numerous nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Canine Companions.

Events

Services will be set for a future date to be determined.