Physician John P. McCloy dies at 87

Dr. John P. McCloy's family always knew his patients thought highly of him.

Early in his career, McCloy spent many a Sunday afternoon making house calls with several of his young children in tow. The doctor, who practiced in Nassau County, died last week. He was said to have a cheerful bedside manner, often ending visits with patients by telling them a joke he had heard recently.

But in 1983, when about 500 of McCloy's patients rented a hall to throw him a surprise birthday party, even his family was somewhat overwhelmed.

McCloy's wife and eight children were told of the party at a rented hall in Levittown at the last minute. "So we wouldn't spill the beans," said one of the doctor's three sons, Jack McCloy, 60, of Baldwin.

After luring his father onto the hall stage, where a drawn curtain hid guests, Jack McCloy remembers to this day the moment the curtain lifted.

"I never saw my dad's eyes get so wide-eyed," McCloy said. "It was one of the real touching moments in his life, seeing how much his patients loved him."

McCloy died May 14 of complications from dementia at a Huntington Station senior-care facility, family said. The longtime Melville resident was 87.

A Newsday account of the 1983 party says patients cheered and chanted "we love you" and "thank you" before presenting McCloy and his wife with a four-day paid Las Vegas vacation.

McCloy's son said his father typified the 1950s family physician, performing virtually every medical procedure, from delivering babies to tonsillectomies and appendectomies, and making house calls. "He considered his patients as much family as his own family," Jack McCloy said.

As a child, Jack McCloy said his father would take him and some of his brothers and sisters along as he made house calls. "Dad would drop Mom at home after church, and we'd go along with him," McCloy said. "We'd read comic books and wait in the car listening to the radio while he saw his patients."

After serving as a naval captain in World War II, John McCloy went to New York Medical College before stints at Metropolitan Hospital in Manhattan and Morrisania Hospital in the Bronx.

He started a private practice in Levittown and then opened a larger office in Hicksville, where he was affiliated with Central General, now North Shore University Hospital in Plainview, and Mid-Island, now St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage.

In 2000, his son said, hundreds of patients organized a retirement party, thanking McCloy for 48 years of service.

In addition to his son Jack, survivors include his wife of 62 years, Rosemarie; sons William McCloy of Mineola and Christopher McCloy of Greenlawn; daughters Rosemarie McCloy of Flushing, Jann Oberg of Syosset, Cathleen McCloy of Clifton, Va., Patricia McCloy of Huntington Station and Cynthia McCloy of Wheatley Heights; a brother, William J. McCloy of Englewood, Fla.; and eight grandchildren.

A funeral Mass was celebrated Wednesday at St. James Roman Catholic Church, Seaford, followed by burial at Calverton National Cemetery.