Notre Dame, 1956
Dr. Angelo Capozzi was an honorary inductee into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame at the 2016 convention in Dallas, Texas.
“When Dick Enberg called me and told me I was selected for the Hall of Fame, it blew me away. I was just getting ready to leave on a mission to Ethiopia and I could not have had a better send off. I am humbled being selected and proud to be representing the University of Notre Dame and dedicate this honor to my classmates of the great class of 1956.” – Dr. Angelo Capozzi
Dr. Capozzi was a standout lefthanded pitcher under legendary Notre Dame baseball coach Jake Kline (Notre Dame ’21) in the mid-1950’s. He is the Class of 2016’s Honorary inductee. The honorary designation is awarded to a former distinguished scholar-athlete whose collegiate career pre-dated the Academic All-America® program in his/her particular sport.
Until his retirement several years ago, Dr. Capozzi was a leading plastic surgeon who has been conducting international humanitarian services since 1976. In 1992, he co-founded Rotaplast International, Inc., which provided lip cleft and palate cleft surgery to children in foreign countries, and continues to do so today. As Rotplast’s co-founder and medical director, he traveled on 60 international missions to 27 countries, 46 with Rotaplast, and has performed thousands of surgeries, changing countless lives of children across the world.
He received his bachelor of science degree from the University of Notre Dame, his MD from Loyola’s Stritch School of Medicine in 1960, and training in plastic surgery at the University of Wisconsin. Following medical school, Dr. Capozzi served as an Air Force captain and chief of plastic surgery at David Grant Air Force Hospital in Fairfield, California. He worked in a private practice for 30 years in San Francisco at St. Francis Memorial Hospital, serving as chief of the Borthin Burn Center, chairman of plastic surgery, and director of the residency training program. He then left private practice to become chief of plastic surgery at the Shriners Hospital for Children in Sacramento, California.
In 2008, Dr. Capozzi retired and now devotes himself to consulting and serving children in need through Rotaplast.
Capozzi has received multiple awards from his alma mates. He received the Notre Dame Alumni Dr. Thomas A. Dooley Award in 2001 (for outstanding service to humankind). In 2014, the Notre Dame Monogram Club awarded him The Moose Krause Distinguished Service Award, its highest honor, for extraordinary commitment and involvement with youth and leadership and service to others. In 2010, Capozzi received the Loyola University Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine Alumni of the Year award; in 2015, he was honored with a Damen Award, given to an alumnus for highest qualities of leadership in industry, leadership in community and service to others.
Story written 4/7/16 by Barb Kowal, CoSIDA Director of External Affairs