Improving air quality was doctor’s passion

Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.

Dr. Joseph Tangredi had a consuming passion to help Las Vegans breathe a little easier.

A leading ear, nose and throat physician and a crusader in the 1980s and '90s for cleaner air, Tangredi encouraged county and state officials to reduce pollen counts, diesel and other tailpipe emissions and harmful fine dust.

"The environment was a big obsession for my father," Las Vegas lawyer Joe Tangredi said. "He fought an uphill battle on many fronts during Las Vegas' most graphic growth period."

In the early 1990s, the elder Tangredi played a major role in securing a ban for new housing projects on planting olive trees, fruitless mulberries and other plants that aggravate allergies.

While visiting friends in Panama, Dr. Joseph Francis Tangredi died on Aug. 16 from complications of Parkinson's disease, his family said in disclosing his death this week. He was 71 and a resident of both St. Pete Beach, Fla., and Las Vegas.

A memorial service for the Las Vegas resident of more than 30 years will be held at 10 a.m. Sept. 23 in the Christ the King Catholic Community chapel, 4925 S. Torrey Pines Drive.

"The wonderful thing about Joe was his ability to put things into perspective," said Dan Geary, Nevada's representative to the National Environmental Trust. "Often, clean air legislation can be so technical, but Joe explained it in words that most people understood."

Tangredi's son said his father mounted sophisticated pollution-reading equipment on the roof of his home to collect pollen and particulates that he later studied under a microscope in his office. He also regularly testified before the Clark County Health District on air pollution matters.

Tangredi was appointed in 1994 to the Nevada State Environmental Commission and served one term.

Born March 11, 1935, in the Bronx, N.Y., Tangredi graduated from Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y., in 1956 and served in the Army. In 1964, he earned his medical degree from the University of Bologna in Italy.

Tangredi ran his practice for about 25 years on Lake Mead Boulevard in North Las Vegas and on Shadow Lane in Las Vegas, and in much of the 1980s, he wrote a column for the Sun, "Your Allergies and You."

Tangredi's son said it bothered his father in recent years to see the brown ring of smog around the Las Vegas Valley: "It made him feel he was not successful, although he had helped raise public consciousness at a time when Las Vegas often was not in attainment of federal clean air standards."

Tangredi also is survived by his wife, Judith of Las Vegas; another son, Raymond of Clackamas, Ore.; daughters Louise of Kingwood, Texas; Elizabeth of San Diego; and Christine of Winterville, N.C.; a brother, Albert of Long Island, N.Y.; and eight grandchildren.

The family said donations can be made in Tangredi's memory to Christ the King Catholic Community or to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, Grand Central Station, P.O. Box 4777, New York, NY 10163.