Late health director lived full life despite medical challenges

Canton Public Health Director John Ciccotelli atop the Ijen volcano in Java, Indonesia in 2014

He devoted nearly 20 years of his life to protecting and promoting the health of Canton’s residents, but in the midst of the most severe public health crisis in over a century, John Ciccotelli, the town’s longtime health director and by all accounts a picture of quiet strength, had physically nothing left to give.

After suffering through a lifetime of chronic illnesses and major medical procedures, Ciccotelli, 63, was hospitalized for the last time beginning in early March, unable to shake a blood infection that had left him feeling weak and severely fatigued. His condition continued to worsen over the next several weeks until finally, after a series of scans and a subsequent biopsy, doctors arrived at a firm diagnosis: advanced stage non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His family, who by that point were no longer allowed to visit due to COVID-19 concerns, were notified of the results on a Monday evening and he passed away three days later, on Thursday, April 9.

Ciccotelli, according to his younger sister Tish, had always been a fighter — the kind of man who had endured three different transplant surgeries (two kidneys and a pancreas), followed by years of grueling dialysis treatments, all while continuing to fulfill his duties as Canton’s full-time director of public health. This was a man, said Tish, who refused to apply for disability benefits and who had to be practically begged to accept a handicap placard for his car. He was also the same man who, just a few years earlier, had somehow managed to drag himself several miles over 12 hours to the top of the Ijen volcano in Java, Indonesia, while wearing braces on both legs.

Still, when she saw her brother on her final permitted visit at the hospital in early April, Tish said she sensed that he would not be coming home.

“I just didn’t have a good feeling about it,” she said. “Every time he called he sounded weaker and weaker; he just had no energy left. And it was so frustrating because now we couldn’t see him and we couldn’t advocate for him.”

Noting how passionate he was about his work as a public health official, Tish said it was also the cruelest of ironies that his own body was failing him at a time when his leadership and expertise would never have been more essential.

“It was killing him to just be there in that hospital room with nothing to do,” she said. “He lived for stuff like this — not a pandemic that’s killing people, but a situation where he could use his skills and knowledge to help people.”

Several of Ciccotelli’s former colleagues made similar observations about the tragic timing of his death, with all agreeing that he would have been in the thick of the fight against COVID-19 in Canton.

“He definitely would be on top of things and ensuring that the Health Department was doing everything they could to keep the community safe,” said former public health nurse Terri Khoury, who worked with Ciccotelli for 15 years.

Khoury said Ciccotelli had firsthand knowledge of the SARS outbreak and subsequent response through his prior travels to Singapore, where his wife, Zaleha, originally hails from, and would have been “very concerned” with COVID-19 and the number of unknown variables associated with the virus. “I think his message would be for Canton residents to really follow the state Department of Public Health guidelines and the governor’s guidelines, and let’s keep everyone separated and safe until we get a better handle on what’s going on,” Khoury said.

John Ciccotelli (center) meets with health officials in Indonesia in 2006.

Current Board of Health member Dr. Alan Rapoport agreed that COVID-19, which he described as a “once-in-a-lifetime pandemic,” is something that Ciccotelli “would have loved to have tackled.”

“He would have loved to be a part of that whole discussion about reopening schools and restaurants,” said Rapoport. “He was a passionate man about that stuff and always thought about things in terms of what’s in the best interests of the citizens.”

Ciccotelli’s passion for public health also extended to other areas, including emergency preparedness, sanitation, and arguably his number-one topic of concern: tobacco control and prevention.

“I just really think that he truly cared about the health of people in Canton and everything he did was geared toward that,” noted BOH member Dr. Julie Goodman, who worked closely with Ciccotelli on several landmark tobacco regulations.

Besides being one of the first towns in Massachusetts to raise the smoking age to 21 (now a statewide law), Canton, under Ciccotelli’s leadership, also approved a sweeping ban on a variety of “nonmedical” nicotine products and was ahead of the curve when it moved this fall to ban the sale of menthol cigarettes as well as all vaping products in the town.

When the board voted to raise the tobacco purchase age in 2013, Goodman recalled how Ciccotelli volunteered to work with her on a survey to determine the impact of the regulations on teen smoking rates.

“He didn’t have to do any of this,” said Goodman. “But he would always do the extra work if he thought it could make a difference, and to me that speaks volumes.”

Jane Pratt, a retired public health nurse who used to conduct tobacco stings for the Health Department, recalled how incredibly passionate Ciccotelli was about keeping tobacco out of the hands of local kids — and all Canton residents for that matter. “That was extremely important to him,” said Pratt. “He wanted to have Canton completely tobacco-free before he died.”

Both Pratt and Khoury also commented on how supportive Ciccotelli was of the nursing side of the health department while still managing to respect their autonomy. Khoury said she also appreciated how he would back some of her “crazy” ideas, such as her pitch to host a summer safety fair targeted to kids and families — an event that has since become a popular annual tradition in Canton.

A young John Ciccotelli during a trip to Brazil in 1982

“He was very good to his workers,” said Pratt. “He treated us all fairly. He respected the work that the nursing staff did, and he would always back us up.”

Besides being passionate about his job, his sister Tish said Ciccotelli also loved the town of Canton and was proud of his deep local roots. While he eventually settled in Westport, he was raised in the town, attended St. John the Evangelist School, and graduated from Canton High School — just like his three siblings. He even followed in the footsteps of his late father Ernie, who had worked for the town part-time as a health inspector.

Although known primarily for his role as public health director, Tish said Ciccotelli was a “brilliant” man with diverse interests and an adventurous spirit. He loved animals and owned both a pony and a donkey, as well as emus, ducks and geese. In the late 1970s, while working for the Deran Confectionery Company of Cambridge, he created what was believed at the time to be the “world’s largest malted milk ball” and was featured in the Boston Globe for the achievement. He spent time as a science teacher at both the high school and college levels. He loved his wife dearly and was a proud father and stepfather. He also traveled extensively and enjoyed memorable experiences in far-off locales — visiting the jungles of Borneo and the killing fields in Cambodia, riding elephants in Thailand, and most recently, climbing a glacier in Iceland.

And despite facing one health problem after another and struggling with near constant pain, he never made excuses and “never, ever complained,” according to Tish.

“He fought his fragileness the entire way,” she said. “Everything he did in his life was never normal because of his health issues, but he still wanted to do it and he still pushed through it. And he didn’t care, because he loved his work, he loved his family, and he was having fun and living his life.”

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