In Memoriam

Robert Evans DO

The skies are darker over Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) as the college family takes heart-heavy note of the loss of Robert Evans, DO. Dr. Evans was a vital and foundational thread running through the fabric that has come to form the tapestry of all that is LECOM.

His ever-inquisitive blue eyes, his uplifting spirit, and the vibrant cheerfulness that accompanied his presence from classroom to the world at large imbued those around him with his infectious joy. LECOM collectively extends its deepest and most sincere condolences to the entire Evans family.

LECOM welcomed its first class in August of 1993, and at that time, Dr. Evans and Dr. Silvia Ferretti, (now LECOM Provost, Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs), were practicing in the same offices located across from Millcreek Community Hospital. “Dr. Evans was a joy, always upbeat, an expert in Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM), and a fine and dedicated family physician,” noted Dr. Ferretti. With a large following of patients, Dr. Evans practiced for over 30 years. When Dr. Evans - a father of five children - decided to retire from clinical practice, LECOM invited him to become a full-time OMM faculty member. Dr. Evans set up his office in the OMM Lab. His fatherly demeanor underpinned his ensuing and excellent mentorship to LECOM students. Without exception, this devoted medical educator made himself available to students, offering keen expertise and guidance.

Dr. Evans’ piercing blue eyes became the source of an internal jest - that their vibrant color prompted the blue hues chosen for the OMM Lab - a place so often frequented by this honored educator.

Truly, Dr. Robert Evans was a man of faith, compassion, and caring who embodied the deepest and most profoundly meaningful attributes of Osteopathic Medicine.

Dr. Evans dedicated his life to abating misery - his work, his purpose, his mentorship, and his very mission was to heal; yet in so doing, his ebullient spirit scattered joy around him. In the joys of his achievements, in the students that he touched with his gift of knowledge, and in the family that is LECOM - Dr. Robert Evans will leave his legacy.

Dina Randazzo, DO

The whole of the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) family mourns the loss of Dina Randazzo, DO, Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery and Neurology at Duke Health in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Randazzo succumbed on February 20, 2021 after a lengthy battle with cancer.

A 2009 graduate of LECOM, Dr. Randazzo completed her residency in neurology at the University of Florida at Jacksonville.

Her work as a caring and highly-skilled neurooncology specialist will be long remembered.

Dr. Randazzo also completed a fellowship at Duke University in 2014, before joining its School of Medicine faculty.

She was a member of the Duke Cancer Institute and the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center; and she served as Principal Investigator on several publications that focused upon research and treatment of glioblastoma, an aggressive form of cancer of the brain and spine. Dr. Randazzo’s lifelong professional pledge and undaunted mission to defeat the scourge of cancer endures, made all the more poignant by her untimely loss to the disease.

May the family and friends of Dr. Dina Randazzo take comfort in the inspirational memory of her noble mission and in the awareness of the many lives that she transformed during her all too brief time among us.