Paul Joseph Rubino, MD, born in 1936 near Bari, Italy, passed away peacefully on November 29th, 2022 with family at his side. He is survived by his loving wife of 59 years Ann (nee Freborg), four devoted daughters and their spouses, his "one and only" son, six grandchildren, three step-grandchildren, his brother and brother-in-law, their spouses, five nephews and one niece, great-nephews and great-nieces. He is predeceased by his parents, parents-in-law and his sister-in-law.

He attended Scalabrini-based Santa Maria Addolorata Grade School, then was Jesuit-trained at St. Ignatius High School, Loyola University where he first met Ann, the one and only love of his life, and then attended Stritch School of Medicine. They married the day after his graduation ceremony and immediately embarked upon their plan to create a large family. After completing his residency at Cook County Hospital, he served as a general surgeon in the Navy during the war in Viet Nam. He then joined the Family Medical Group in Joliet where he became a partner and practiced medicine at St Joseph Hospital for 35 years. Upon retirement, he became involved in various Italian American organizations and actively worked to spread an understanding of Italian culture wherever he went. He was an avid gardener and traveled widely with his wife and family. He was a lifelong Lyric opera attendee who learned to love opera by accompanying his father who was a "clapper," hired to signal when to clap. He was always the first to clap and loved to sing along at the opera, much to his children's chagrin.

Paul grew up during World War II, raised alone by his mother while his father worked in Chicago to support the family. In 1948, after the war had ended, they immigrated to America to join his father. Possibly because of that childhood experience, the most important thing to him was family. He always said that the greatest wealth was family. And, if you are rich but don't have family, you have nothing. Throughout his life he gave of himself to his "family," whether it was his parents, brother, wife, children, grandchildren, friends, patients, extended family, relatives in Italy, Canada or Chicago, strangers he met everywhere he went, etc. Everyone was Family to him. No matter who you were, when he spoke with you, he was interested in you. Your life and what you thought about mattered to him. He was endlessly curious about life, and he believed in the potential of one person to make a difference.

And, in fact, he did.

Paul was self-made and believed in the power of each individual to make a difference. Yet he also nurtured and tended to everything, from his patients to his garden to his family, and everything grew under his watchful eye.

He and Ann worked hard to provide for their family. And once that was secure, they brought to life their belief in the importance of education for all by setting up scholarships for underserved students at Saint Ignatius High School and Lewis University, and endowed a professorship at Loyola University in Italian American Studies.

A man can be defined by his heroes. Ann explains that early in their relationship, before medical school and marriage, Paul told her about his hero, Don Eduardo Loconte.

During WWII, Don'Duard, as they said in dialect, was the doctor in his hometown, an old fashioned country GP (general practitioner, as primary care physicians were called back then) in a village of 500. While the war swirled around them, Don'Duard worked on. There was no insurance then. No government programs. No antibiotics. No vaccines and often almost no food. He treated everyone in town, minor surgery, infections, donkey kicks, cuts and fractures, childbirth, pneumonia… He had nothing to work with but his knowledge and a great heart. He never charged anyone, just fixed them as best he could. His statue now stands in the piazza, erected after the war in his memory. Don'Duard was Paul's model of a doctor, loved by the whole town.

In Ann's eyes, Paul always respected the old way of practicing medicine, patient first, fee later. She says their kids remember many parties canceled and meals interrupted or served hours late because of a call from the hospital. Don 'Duard' cast a long shadow. She trusts that now Don 'Duard' and Paul can enjoy some fine discussions in a better place.

Visitation will be held at Carlson Holmquist-Sayles Funeral Home, 2320 Black Road in Joliet on Sunday, December 11, 2022 from 2pm to 7pm.

Funeral services will be held from the funeral home on Monday, December 12, 2022 at 9:15 am to Holy Family Parish in Shorewood for a Mass of Christian Burial at 10 am. Interment to follow at Woodlawn Memorial Park, Joliet.

In lieu of flowers, memorials to Lightways Hospice in Joliet or Catholic Charities would be appreciated.