LV doctor, former star athlete, dies at 64

Wednesday, June 28, 2006 | 7:26 a.m.

Charlie Ruggeroli could be found on the basketball court long after practice ended at Bishop Gorman High School.

There, Charlie would shoot foul shots or work on some other part of his game that he believed needed more work.

"You could see in Charlie's eyes the determination to become the best athlete he could be," said Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, who shagged balls for Ruggeroli during those post-practice sessions in the late 1950s.

"It was that same dedication that made him a great cardiologist in Las Vegas."

Dr. Charles W. "Charlie" Ruggeroli, whose patients over 30 years included Elvis Presley and boxer Sugar Ray Leonard, died Saturday of lung cancer at Valley Hospital. He was 64.

Despite being a good athlete, Ruggeroli was a longtime smoker of Winstons. He gave up the habit 13 years ago, said his wife, Barbara Ruggeroli.

However, she said, his doctors told her Ruggeroli more likely got cancer from exposure to radiation at his job or as a result of going to the desert as a child to watch above-ground nuclear blasts from the Nevada Test Site - a popular pastime of the mid-1950s.

Services will be 1:30 p.m. Friday at St. Viator's Catholic Church at Flamingo Road and Eastern Avenue. Viewing will be 2 to 7 p.m. Thursday at Palm Mortuary-Main, followed by a prayer service.

"My father took time with his patients," said Dr. Charles E. Ruggeroli, who joined his father's private practice in July 2000. "No matter how busy he was, he always talked with them and made sure all of their questions were answered."

Charles W. Ruggeroli was a lifetime resident of Southern Nevada.

His mother, Maxine Ruggeroli, was a member of the Las Vegas Women's Bowling Association Hall of Fame. When pregnant with Charlie, she had complications and had to go to Salt Lake City because local hospitals did not have the technology to care for her. There, Charlie was born on Jan, 2, 1942.

He was a 12-letter man at Bishop Gorman, starring in football, basketball and baseball. Although his teams never won a state title, he would watch his four sons garner six state titles in football and basketball at Gorman during the late 1970s and early '80s.

Ruggeroli met the former Barbara Hobart his junior year, and they began dating. In 1960, they graduated - she was class valedictorian; he, salutatorian.

The couple married in a civil ceremony that summer and in 1962 in a Catholic church.

Ruggeroli went to the University of San Francisco on a basketball scholarship, graduated in three years and earned his medical degree from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb.

He served in the Air Force and did residencies in Northern California before returning to Las Vegas to open his practice in 1974 and joining the staff at Valley Hospital. At the time of his death, he served on that hospital's board of governors.

Ruggeroli also served on the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which regulates boxing.

Ruggeroli also is survived by three other sons, Edward Ruggeroli, Enrico Ruggeroli and Nick Ruggeroli; two daughters, Nicole Ruggeroli and Alecia Ruggeroli-Wilson; a brother, Harry Ruggeroli; and 12 grandchildren, all of Las Vegas.

The family said donations can be made to the Nevada Cancer Institute or the American Heart Association.