A Tribute To My Mentor And Friend Thomas Sgarlato, DPM

We lost one of our profession’s true titans a couple weeks ago and I lost a friend and mentor. Thomas Sgarlato, DPM, died on June 18, 2016. As everyone in our profession knows, he was one of the real pioneers in biomechanics, during what some could say was the true genesis period of modern podiatric surgery.

I first met Dr. Sgarlato in the mid-1990s when he and I were lecturing at a course in Rhode Island. He stopped me in the hall and said he wanted to talk with me. Of course, at that time, I certainly knew who he was and was convinced that he did not know me, and was wary of what he wanted to talk with me about.

As he proved that day and many times since, I was wrong. Dr. Sgarlato had been following my teaching of endoscopic plantar fasciotomy and was very complimentary. That was Tommie. He told me to call him that the first time I met him that day when I referred to him as Dr. Sgarlato. He was erudite without any pretense. Tommie was inherently gifted as an educator and innovator in addition to being a great surgeon.

Tommie simply loved life and his profession. More importantly, he loved the individuals in his profession as he saw us all as part of his family. Those of us who really got to know him loved him back. I had the great fortune of spending many hours with him locked in all types of discussions usually heralded by the opening of a great cabernet sauvignon. Sometimes these “discussions” were simply his display of being the world’s best 21 handicapper. The man could master the short golf game like no one else I ever saw, all the time with his cigar fixated in his mouth.

Once I jokingly accused him of cheating based on the fact that he could detect the wind currents by the direction the smoke of the cigar would go. He smiled broadly, patted me on the back and chuckled. “So what’s your point?”

A topic that we frequently discussed, usually after a long day of playing 36 holes and a couple of generous glasses of cabernet, was what happened after our time on this planet was over. He counseled me that while no one knew, the universal law of physics stated that energy cannot be destroyed but only transferred from one state to another. 

With that being said, he transferred more “energy” to me and many members of our professional family than any other man I know. While we will all greatly miss him, his spirit lives on in many of us today because of the energy he imparted during his precious time with us. 

Rest in peace, Tommie. We will never forget what you so generously gave us.