Former North Jersey Surgeon and Hoboken Hospital Administrator Dies

HOBOKEN, NJ — The former chief medical officer at Hoboken's hospital — and a well-known surgeon in North Jersey — has died. Angelo Caprio was 73.

Caprio, who grew up in Hoboken, earned Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Rome in 1980.

He served in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Storm and returned to New Jersey to become a top administrator at St. Mary Hospital, later Hoboken University Medical Center, through the early 2000s, his LinkedIn profile notes. He also had an office in Rutherford.

Caprio was the disaster coordinator at St. Mary's Hospital, handling operations during the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

A 2011 Patch story, "Plan 'D' For Disaster," notes:

Dr. Angelo Caprio, a general surgeon at the hospital, was at home getting ready for work when he heard from his bathroom someone on TV say a plane had hit the World Trade Center. He thought of the B-25 bomber that had crashed into the Empire State Building nearly half a century earlier and said he wondered how such an accident could ever happen again.

As he stopped in front of his TV, he saw the second plane hit. “We’re under attack,” Caprio thought to himself. And he picked up the phone to call the hospital and declare a Plan D for disaster.

As St. Mary’s designated disaster physician, Caprio had handled what he called “minor disasters,” mostly power outages and nothing with casualties in the thousands.

Caprio lived out his last years in Connecticut and died on July 31, his obituary says, noting, "To thousands of patients, colleagues, students, and friends, he was simply known as 'Doc.' ”

A Celebration of Life will be held on Sunday in Hoboken, with a funeral mass Monday. Details are here.