Howard LeRoy CORRELL M.D.

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Obituary

Correll a 'giant' of Milwaukee medicine.

By Kawanza L. Griffin
of the Journal Sentinel Staff

Howard Leroy Correll believed that everyone should have access to health care.

So much so, that he insisted on providing $7 house calls to all his patients until his retirement in 1970.

The cardiologist, who survived colon cancer in 1968, died of natural causes, Aug. 19 at the Ingleside Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Mount Horeb. He was 93.

"He really believed in service to people and wanted to raise kids who believed in service too," said his daughter, Rebecca Jane Correll Cryer.

Correll was born Nov. 2, 1908, in Spring Green. His father was a pharmacist and wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. But after graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a bachelor's degree in pharmacology in 1931, Correll decided to take an alternative route. He entered the UW Medical School, graduating from it in 1935.

After an internship in St. Paul, Minn., and his residency in Iowa City, Iowa, Correll returned to Wisconsin in 1937 as a resident at University Hospital in Madison. He completed that residency in 1938 at Milwaukee County General Hospital.

"I think we can safely say that (Correll) was one of the giants of Milwaukee medicine," said John Petersen, a friend and colleague in Milwaukee. "He left his footprints in many places in the community, and he was an absolutely wonderful human being."

Among Correll's accomplishments: chairman of the department of cardiology at Marquette University Medical School, which is now the Medical College of Wisconsin; a developer of the cardiology department at St. Luke's Medical Center; president of the Medical Society; and, of course, a grandfather.

"His life was medicine," Cryer said. "He was very devoted to medicine, his grandchildren and his wife."

Correll married Ellen Isadora Vivian in 1940. They had four children, Cryer, of Mineral Point, a French teacher who spent 16 years abroad; Paul, of Cross Plains, a dentist; John, of McFarland, a lawyer; and Timothy, of Madison, also a physician.

"He really enjoyed what he did and made us believe education was important," Paul Correll said. "And, well, we all fell for it."

Because their dad enjoyed "the simple things in life" and would not have wanted a funeral or visitation, family members are having a private "celebration" of his life on Sept. 7 to reminisce and share his favorite foods meat and potatoes, Cryer said.

In addition to his wife and four children, Correll is survived by eight grandchildren.... ²

   Marriage Information:

Howard married Ellen Isadora VIVIAN, daughter of Walter William VIVIAN and Edna WALTERS, in 1940. (Ellen Isadora VIVIAN was born on 4 Jun 1914 in Wauzeka, WI, USA ¹ and died on 21 Jan 2004 in The Don & Marilyn Hospice Center, Madison, WI, USA ¹.)