For 50 years, Dr. DiClerico's house calls were the rule rather than the exception. "I used to get up at 5:30am, operate until 7:00am, make 10-15 house calls and then go to the office to see patients until 9:00pm." said DiClerico in a Lynn Item interview.
Most babies never saw the inside of the inside of a hospital delivery room. He recalled "in my first 10 years, 75% of the deliveries were done at home. Women just didn't want to go to the hospital." His first official delivery was David Solimine Sr. (of Solimine Funeral Home). When DiClerico retired in 1984, Solimine recalled "He's done so much good, given more free treatments. He always had a fresh boutonniere on his lapel and a cigar in his mouth. The nurses at the hospital would have to yell at him to take it out. It was just one of his trademarks."
Julie Tarmy of Nahant recalls her memories of Dr. DiClerico: "He was a staple to our home. He was also the school physician when I was a kid. Being the 7th of 9 kids, we had lots of the usual maladies of the day: measles, mumps, chicken pox, broken bones and the average cold and sniffles. We were also hit with serious and sometimes deadly afflictions: Epilepsy, Polio and Meningitis. "Dr. Joe" was there for all of it. We would visit the office at his home on Prospect Street in Nahant or at his Lynn office (85 Nahant Street, Lynn).
I remember vividly going to his Nahant office to have my surgical stitches out. There was a separate entrance at his house, next to the garage, with a small waiting room with wooden chairs and a little window. It was almost hidden by tall bushes and climbing plants. His office was small, with a desk and one exam table.
Born in Lynn, Joseph DiClerico attended Georgetown University Medical School and was Union Hospital's Chief of OBS-GYN from 1947-1968. He served as Lynn's Public Health Commissioner and was also Essex County Medical Examiner for 20 years.
Julie adds “In addition to office visits, he performed many surgeries on my siblings and me. We would go in groups to have our tonsils out. I was in the same room as two of my brothers for our tonsillectomies.
Both my sister and I had our appendixes out at Union Hospital. I had my appendectomy at the age of 11, a week before my big ballet recital. I asked if I would be able to dance the following Saturday. Dr. Joe’s response was that I would be lucky to be walking out of the hospital in a week. He was right. When I remember Dr. DiClerico, it always brings a smile. He was a good man, cigar and all!!"