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In Memoriam
Ms. Joyce Zoe CarigliaJanuary 5, 1945 – November 18, 2024WDMS Executive Director 1985 – 2018
Past WDMS Executive Director, Joyce Cariglia, passed away at home on November 18, 2024, at age 79 after a life well lived. We at the Worcester District Medical Society owe her much.
After graduating from the Salter Secretarial School and working for a physician’s office, she came to the Worcester District in 1985 as then-Director Charlotte Wilder’s administrative assistant. When Ms. Wilder retired in 1990, Joyce was named Director. In that time, she brought to her role a calling for the medical profession and the ability of our society to bring physicians together to better themselves and their profession.
I had the pleasure of working with Joyce for her whole career at WDMS. She was always thinking of ways to do more and to do better. She was a creative force that could bring an idea to reality quickly and with little attention being paid to herself. Her span at the Society included the move to computers as well as the internet which she immersed herself in quickly, computerizing the financial records in the early 1990s and establishing a website for the Society.
She had a knack for taking members’ ideas and turning them into reality. Beyond the usual dinners and programs, many innovations came to us during her years including our TV show (Health Matters), the Spoken History Project, the Women’s Caucus, and numerous innovative medical education programs. Perhaps most outstanding was the development of Worcester Healthcare Outreach (WHO) which involved outreach in our community to address those in need. She actively sought and won grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as was able to staff up and meet the strict requirements of this process.
When her husband, Samuel, went through cancer care and eventually died, she recognized the failings of our system in end-of-life and got involved with the hospice movement as well as working with then-WDMS President Brownell Wheeler to focus on end-of-life education for the membership.
In addition to being predeceased by her husband, Samuel, in 1995, she lost her life partner, David Williams, in 2023. She is survived by her sister Loria Gourouses of Worcester. In her final years, she received much support from her good friend, Kim McGhee, as well as Hospice and Visiting Angels.
We are the beneficiaries of her dedication, creativity, and hard work.
Rest in peace, Joyce.
B. Dale Magee, MWDMS President 1995, member since 1979
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