Reuben G. Wagelie, MD

9.9.1934 - 9.27.2021

 Dear Patients,

It is with the greatest imaginable sadness that I inform you that my dad, Dr. Reuben G. Wagelie, passed away on September 27, shortly after his 87th birthday. He was fiercely loved by his wife of 61 years—my mom, Sandi (who you might remember from her days as a nurse in the clinic), his 5 daughters, 8 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren, and he loved us all back.

It’s well known that his second family was at his work. He loved children and was a pediatrician before his allergy training at Baylor. He set his own course on his own terms in 1982 when he opened Allergy Associates of Tucson. He served tens of thousands of patients all over Tucson and Southern Arizona, taking to the roads to broaden the practice in the early days. He soon found that the drive to Safford, Nogales, Sierra Vista, Douglas, Morenci and others was so peaceful and the patients were so kind, he didn’t want to give it up. He and my mom went together for several years and had impromptu adventures after clinic in the Chiricahuas or Madera Canyon. When my nephew Charlie took over at the wheel, the drive became a time to share stories and life lessons, of which he had so many. He often shared them with his “work family” too, who held down the fort with me in Tucson…like Grace —who is still working and just celebrated her 38th anniversary at Allergy Associates, and Mary—who was so like a daughter to dad she even happens to share his eldest daughter Becky’s birthday— and Joyce, Sherry, Desiree, Danielle, Viví, Dunia, Margarita, Meredith, Lola, Anahí, Ximena, and brand-new Julia and Jasmine—who all now work hard to continue his legacy.

I joined him in 2007. He always joked that as soon as I showed up, he and his best friend Horacio would hop into his car, take a right onto Country Club and go play tennis every day at the Tucson Racquet Club. And he did play a bit more than before…. but found that his work life and patients had sort of woven themselves into the muscle fibers of his heart… it kept his family life beating, and was an intellectual counterpoint to his non-work passions: tennis, running, gardening, the Yankees, listening to music with my mom, telling stories about the Philippines, playing mahjong and reveling in the cacophony of a house full of joyful noise, where the “original seven” and all their partners, kids and grandkids ate and swam and laughed all together…..

This is what we tried to recreate for him over the past couple weeks, as he was leaving us. I owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to my PA Danielle, my Practice Manager Desiree, and the whole AAAOT family for working so tirelessly these past days in order to let me and my sister Meredith spend as much time with him and our family as possible. A very special thank you to Robyn Green, NP for her incredible wisdom and clarity at a moment of truth.

He used to quiz me, after he retired, about how all the new biologics worked and which of his long-time patients had gone on to try them, often with great success. He marveled at all the new options and he and I would “geek out” about the cytokines and science behind them. A few days before he passed, when he was only lucid a couple hours a day, he extemporaneously dove into some musings about medicine and some of those new treatments. Right before he got sleepy again, he reminded me that although medicines are powerful things, the most important patient treatment is simply how you treat them: with kindness, respect, attention, and honesty.

I will do my best to always remember, Dad