A Leader in His Field:Revere Native Joseph Corrado Named President of Missouri State Medical Association

A Revere native, whose parents still reside in the city, is the new president of the Missouri State Medical Association (MSMA).

Dr. Joseph A. Corrado, son of Joseph and Anna (Carlucci) Corrado, was formally installed at the MSMA’s 160th Annual Convention in St. Louis. The MSMA encompasses physicians from all medical specialties in the state.

Dr. Corrado grew up in Beachmont and attended the Mary T. Ronan and Julia Ward Howe Schools. He graduated from Saint Dominic Savio High School, Class of 1968, and earned his bachelor’s of science degree in biology from Boston College, Class of 1972. He received his degree in medicine from Saint Louis University School of Medicine in 1976.

His residency, including chief resident in surgery, was at the Albany Medical Center and affiliate hospitals in Albany, N.Y. He trained as chief fellow and the American Cancer Society fellow at the Lahey Clinic in the first year of its move from Kenmore Square in Boston to Burlington.

Dr. Corrado is currently the chief of surgery at SSM-St. Mary’s Audrain Hospital in Mexico, MO. He has served as chief of staff, cancer liaison, and chairman, and has been on each committee of the Audrain Medical Center in the last 36 years.

Why did the esteemed physician choose to begin his medical career in Missouri?

“When I was attending medical school in St. Louis, I met my wife-to-be [Donna] who was in nursing school in St. Louis, and then when I was finishing all my training, she said, ‘Why don’t we go back and see if they need a surgeon in Missouri?’ That was back in 1981, and I’ve been here ever since.”

During his career, Dr. Corrado has been recognized with several awards, including the American College of Surgeons 30-Year Cancer Liaison Physicians Award and the American College of Surgeons Outstanding Performance Award.

Dr. Corrado has fond memories of his youth in Revere. “I was in Little League, and we had basketball at Our Lady of Laurieton. I grew up in Beachmont with three other siblings and I used to work in Previte’s Market. For all those teenage years, I was in the Italian butcher shop on the corner,” he said.

As the oldest child, Dr. Corrado set a fine example for his three siblings.
“My brother, Paul, was a pharmacist, my brother, Peter, is in kitchenware in Montreal, and my sister, Linda, is also in Montreal,” said Dr. Corrado.

He recalled how supportive his parents were of his endeavors and in his academic pursuits. He is very proud of his father’s service to his country.

“My father left Revere High School in his senior year to fight in World War II,” said Dr. Corrado. “He was in Guadacanal. They found my father’s original diploma and on his 90th birthday, Revere Public Schools gave him his high school diploma. So that was kind of neat. My father was a hard-working man. He was a barber and a firefighter in the Revere Fire Department. He drove the ambulance for the city for over 20 years. My mom was a hairdresser and a stay-at-home mom.”

He started to lay the foundation to his medical career while a student at Boston College.

“When I was a student at BC, I worked in the Boston City Hospital pathology department. I worked for the medical examiners at the morgue and that was very exciting.”

Dr. Corrado calls himself “a rural general surgeon.”

“I’m like a dinosaur because I’m in solo rural practice, and what that means is I’m in a town where at times I’m the only doctor, so I’m on call all the time and I do just about everything.”

Though he thoroughly enjoyed his childhood in Revere and his undergraduate years at BC, Dr. Corrado is now a full-fledged Missouri man.  He and his wife, Donna Glasford Corrado, a Registered Nurse who works at his medical offices, have five children and eleven grandchildren. He is active in the town of Mexico and surrounding communities, including the Chamber of Commerce, Knights of Columbus, Lodge of Elks, and Lions Clubs. He has been a musician in the church choir, and is a guitarist, playing bass guitar for the Blues Highway band.

“I’ve been here longer than I’ve been in Massachusetts,” he said.

Dr. Corrado tries to visit Revere a few times each year. And when he was inaugurated as president of the MSMA, his parents and family were in attendance. He was honored to accept the prestigious position and delivered an inaugural address entitled “More Than A Provider.”

“It’s quite an honor,” he said humbly. “I’m the 161st president and the third one from Mexico. “But I still have my Massachusetts [medical] license, and I still have a little [Boston] accent – I still pa-hk the ca-hr in the ya-hd, I guess.”

And there you have it – a Revere boy, drawing upon the inspiration and work ethic of his loving parents and being a positive role model himself as the oldest of four children, studying hard in college and medical school, and becoming a highly respected surgeon and the head of the medical society in another state.

It’s a true American success story.

(Information from MSMA Presidential Inauguration souvenir program was used in the compilation of this story).