Frank Avallone, ASCP-HT
Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
202 782-2771
202 782-3056 fax
Avallone@afip.osd.mil

AFIP's longest serving employee has career spanning five decades of federal service.
by Michele Hammonds, AFIP Public Affairs

When Frank Avallone began working for the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology 51 years ago, most of the current staff had not yet been born. Back then it was called the Army Medical Museum. A native of Rochester, NY, Avallone served in the Air Force as a staff sergeant in Korea before he reported to his new assignment here in December 1954.

Brigadier General Elbert DeCoursey served as director of the Armed Forces Institute for Pathology from 1950-1955. "GSA moved the AFIP here in March of 1955 and on May 26, 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower dedicated the AFIP building to the conquest of disease.

"I was here when (former) President Eisenhower gave his speech out front dedicating the building," said Avallone, who left the Air Force that same year after a 4-year stint. "I got out and I worked with (the late) Dr. Fathollah Mostofi. I was employed by the VA, and later transferred to DoD. In fact, Avallone, a research biologist worked with Mostofi from 1955 up until 2003 when Mostofi died.

Combined with his Air Force years, Avallone has 55 years of federal service, according to personnel officials. He came to work at the AFIP the same time as the late Dr. Frank B. Johnson, of the Department of Environmental and Toxicologic Pathology. "He is the longest running full-time employee," said Dianne Day, chief of AFIP's civilian personnel, "He has the most years of federal service and nobody else here has even 50 years of service."

"One day, I was discharged from the Air Force and the next day I started work and I have not had a break in service since 1951. I wanted to make 55 years," added Avallone. Through the years he has worked with many renowned now deceased scientists, including Dr. Fathollah Mostofi, Chair of the Department of Genitourinary Pathology; Dr. Kamal G. Ishak, Chair of the Department of Hepatic Pathology; Elson B. Helwig, Chair in Dermatopathology; and Dr. Donald E. Sweet, Chair of the Department of Orthopedic Pathology. "I worked with all the bigwigs. I was one of the original members of the National Society for Histopathology, and Lee Luna and I were real close friends."

Over the years, Avallone has moved from using enzymes to using antibodies for diagnostic and research purposes. "In the late 1950's, we (AFIP) were on of the forerunners using electron microscopy and enzyme histochemistry, and then we graduated to more modern methods of immunohistochemistry," said Avallone, who has worked on literally thousands of military and civilian pathology cases during his more than 50 years at the Institute. In addition, he has worked on many high-profile cases with AFIP's Office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner and other DoD agencies.

Avallone reminisced about victims from civilian and military mishaps that he has helped to identify over the years. "In the early days we did some patient indentification through tissue blood typing, but today it is done through DNA," he said.

Avalone, age 77, remembered an bygone era, at the AFIP when civilian and military consultation cases were free. "We did a great service for the American people back in those days," he said, "The AFIP thrived."

Dr. Isabell Sesterhenn, current Chairman of the Department of GU Pathology, has worked with Avallone at AFIP for many years. She praised Avallone's experience doing kidney, skin and prostate biopsies and his expertise in special stains. "He is one of the most experienced people here in the building," she said, "He knows all about special stains and is an expert in frozen sections/frozen specimens."

A year after joining the AFIP staff in 1956, Avallone began working part time as a laboratory technician in the old DC Emergency Hospital and Dispensary. "It started out a couple nights a week and every other weekend and then it just mushroomed," Avallone said. In 1957, the old emergency hospital and several others in the DC area combined and evolved into the Washington Hospital Center. "I was the first evening clinical lab person the first day they opened." said Avallone who also received a promotion to supervisor and came on board fulltime. "I stayed there for 39 years and retired in 1995."

Over the years, Avallone managed to juggle 2 full-time jobs - his research biologist position at the AFIP as well as lab supervisor at the hospital. Currently, Avallone does not plan to retire for several years. He has a daughter, Janice Jean Patterson, who lives in southern Maryland. In the near future, he plans to retire with his wife of 16 years, Hedwig, and they plan to relocate near the beach.

Once Avallone hangs up his lab coat for good in exchange for retirement, his legacy in special stains and the immunochemistry career field could well last another 50 years.

Courtesy of the AFIP Letter/Vol. 165, No.1/Winter 2007