Beloved family doctor gave all to family, patients, community

Between his 30-plus years as a family medical practitioner and his long track record of service to the Canton community, Dr. Richard Levrault spent the great majority of his life helping and supporting others — while also trying his darndest to make them laugh or smile.

Dr. Richard Levrault

“He had a hell of a sense of humor,” recalled Dr. Tim Lowney, his brother-in-law and longtime partner at Family Medical Associates in Canton Center. “He had the worst jokes, and in 33 years in practice together I think I heard them 3,300 times.”

Yet even the corniest of his many one-liners somehow never got old coming from Dr. Levrault, a classic “old school” family doctor who was adored by patients and very much the “heart and soul” of Family Medical, according to Dr. Lowney.

And that is part of what made his death earlier this month at age 68, following a brief battle with pancreatic cancer, so much more difficult to bear for those who knew and loved him. Diagnosed just days before Christmas and left with no choice but to retire abruptly, Levrault felt an obligation to relay the news to his patients, and they responded with a flood of cards and well wishes. A number of them also called the good doctor at home, and some even went by his house to visit with him and offer their support. To this day, Lowney said there are still patients coming into the office and “sobbing over his loss.”

“They really loved him,” he said, “and he really touched a lot of lives and took care of a lot of people in this community.”

Lowney said that Levrault, in earning his medical degree and becoming a family doctor, was very much living out a dream of his, and he quickly proved to be a natural in the role. Growing up in a working class section of Fall River and coming from a family of 19 children, he would defy the odds by finishing high school and then paying his way through college on his salary as a grocery store clerk. He went on to earn a degree in mathematics at UMass Dartmouth and then spent a few years as a middle school teacher before enrolling in the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and pursuing a career as a doctor.

Lowney said Levrault enjoyed his time as a schoolteacher and always remained a teacher at heart. “I just think he thought he could do more good for the community with a medical degree,” he said, “but Richard was a natural teacher, so getting into the healthcare field sort of was an extension of teaching and healing, and he had a knack for both.”

And yet as skilled and as dedicated as he was as a doctor, Lowney said he was arguably an even better family man — the kind of guy who “lived for” his wife, Mary, their six children, and later his 16 grandchildren.

“He was just the most generous person and just very caring,” said his daughter Katie, the second youngest of her siblings. “We always had friends at our house and he made everyone feel welcome. Our friends were his friends.”

“He always had these silly one liners, and he was just very goofy and corny,” she added. “And he loved to make people laugh.”

At the same time, Katie described her father as a “typical, old school dad,” and the Levrault children were expected to go to school and attend all practices and games, and getting good grades was “not an option.” Perhaps not surprisingly, they all did well academically — two of his children went on to become doctors, both earning degrees from his alma mater. Katie said her father had received the opposite message as a teenager — to not worry about school and to focus instead on finding a job. But he was fortunate to have a mentor at the grocery store that he worked at, and through that man’s encouragement and his own perseverance, he came to understand the value of an education and its power to transform lives.

Besides being a “great dad” and role model, Katie said her father had the “best relationship” with their mother. “She was his world and vice versa,” she said. “And she cared for him so well in the last few months. He’d say, ‘I’m so lucky to have her; she’s the best.’ They set a really good example of what a marriage should be like.”

Even after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Katie said he did little things to show his appreciation for their mother and was constantly buying her cards and gifts. He also grew to be more affectionate with his children and tried very hard to make the most of the time he had left while clinging even tighter to his strong Catholic faith.

Dr. Levrault, pictured above with his wife, children and grandchildren, was a dedicated family man and beloved doctor.

“That guy had a really rough four months,” she said, “but for the most part he put a smile on his face and he’d say, ‘All I want to do is spend time with you guys.’ There were some days that he’d be crying, and that was okay and we would cry with him.”

At the time, Katie said she was so swept up in the pain of losing her father and the impact it would have on their family that she did not realize how difficult it must have been for him to leave his patients and his practice.

“He was diagnosed December 23, and within three days he found out basically he was dying,” she said in retrospect. “So within a weekend his life did a total [180], and I think he felt guilty, like he was somehow abandoning these people he had seen for 30-plus years. That really was a huge cause of sorrow for him.”

Despite her father’s mostly tough exterior, Katie said she came to realize as she grew older how thoughtful and compassionate he was, and that was never more apparent than when he returned from Haiti after a service trip in support of the Haitian Health Foundation, a humanitarian organization founded by another brother-in-law of his, Dr. Jerry Lowney.

While Richard had been an HHF donor for more than 25 years, he finally decided to make the trip himself in 2014 at the urging of his eldest son Richard Jr., who is also a doctor. Katie said he had been hesitant to go — he had always been an anxious flyer — but he decided to step outside of his comfort zone and give it a try, and the experience impacted him profoundly.

“I saw my dad cry two times in my life before he got sick and that was one of them,” Katie said. “I remember him coming back and just sobbing, telling stories about these kids and how difficult their lives were and how he wished every grandkid could come and see. That really changed him.”

It was also quite eye-opening to him as a medical professional, according to Tim Lowney, his partner at Family Medical. “He was pretty moved by the poverty and the people and the differences with caring for them compared to the United States,” Lowney said. “He also traveled into the backwoods and saw things that were pretty much eradicated here, but even doing what they did with the limitations they had was life-saving for the people they encountered.”

Dr. Levrault’s record of service was not just limited to his two trips overseas, however. He also served the Canton community in numerous capacities, including lengthy stints on both the Canton School Committee and the Board of Health.

Lowney said his brother-in-law’s decision to serve the School Committee was tied to his passion for education and his experience as a public school teacher in Fall River. “Richard knew the education system and was sort of an active community guy,” he said, “and getting out and doing something was his way of giving back.”

His background in medicine and knowledge of the town and its residents also made him a natural fit on the Board of Health.

Fellow BOH member Dr. Julie Goodman said it was a privilege to work alongside Levrault on matters of public health in Canton. “He truly cared about the health and well-being of all Canton residents, and I will miss working with him,” she said.

John Ciccotelli, public health director, echoed Goodman’s sentiments and agreed that he was a “really nice man.”

“But the thing that stood out most about him was that he was extremely intelligent and he didn’t seem to miss a detail,” Ciccotelli said. “His main concern was the public’s health, the well-being of the public, and he took a strong interest in essentially everything that came before the board, including our recent smoking law changes and our body art regulations.”

Lowney said Levrault was a valuable board member in large part because he was an outstanding doctor and an excellent communicator — traits he saw day in and day out for 30 years at Family Medical Associates.

“We will continue to provide the best medical care we can and accommodate our patients as best we can, but there’s no replacing him,” Lowney said. “He will be missed by the practice and by the fellow doctors, and he had a great number of patients who loved him and we see it every day. He was definitely the heart of the practice.”

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Posted by Jay Turner on May 27 2017. Filed under Features. Both comments and pings are currently closed.