fb-pixelDr. Michael T. Foley, 63; formerly Fenway Park’s doctor-in-residence - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Dr. Michael T. Foley, 63; formerly Fenway Park’s doctor-in-residence

Dr. Michael Foley (second from right) had a small staff to attend to sick and injured fans.1995 file/globe

As physician-in-attendance at Fenway Park for almost 25 years, Dr. Michael T. Foley was town doctor for the community of Red Sox fans who gather for home games.

"With close to 35,000 people here whenever the Red Sox are in town, this place becomes a small city, so you can count on a range of medical emergencies," Dr. Foley told the Globe in 1995. "Mostly what we see are heat-related problems, bruises caused when fans stampede for a loose ball, and indigestion, but we do get our share of more serious illnesses like cardiac arrest and diabetic comas."

So omnipresent was Dr. Foley at Fenway that a longtime colleague once said he was the de facto mayor of that city of fans who fill the seats. Starting out in 1979, Dr. Foley attended to spectators and sports stars alike during games, and with his small staff sometimes treated as many as 100 patients per game.

"He would develop friendships with the players," said his wife, Anne. "They would always have questions with this and that, and if they had problems outside of the clubhouse, he would help them or refer them to a doctor."

Advertisement



Dr. Foley, who for more than 30 years was a physician at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton, the hospital where he was born, died of cardiac arrest Dec. 11 in Lahey Clinic in Burlington. He was 63 and lived in Arlington.

"He knew everybody at St. Elizabeth's over the years, and he loved working there," his wife said. "Even the cafeteria workers came to his wake."

Serving in a number of roles at St. Elizabeth's, Dr. Foley was appointed chief medical resident in 1978. He was a clinical fellow in gastroenterology there while serving as a research fellow at Lemuel Shattuck Hospital in Boston, and later became president of the medical staff at St. Elizabeth's.

Advertisement



Working long hours at St. Elizabeth's, Dr. Foley was so thorough with each case, taking meticulous notes, that he occasionally was tardy while moving from patient to patient.

"He was sometimes late, and my theory is he would be walking along the halls and he would always stop to talk to people," his wife said.

Along with his private practice in Arlington, Dr. Foley formerly led the medical staffs at Symmes Hospital in Arlington and the Soldiers' Home in Chelsea. He also had been chief of the medical staff and program director for gastroenterology at Kindred Hospital Boston in Brighton.

Dr. Foley, who loved teaching medical students, had been a clinical instructor and later an assistant professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Dr. Angel Gonzalez considered Dr. Foley a mentor and said he "would teach these wonderful classes and always offered helpful notes. He would mix classes up with anecdotes and jokes. We would learn and laugh a lot with him."

A son of John Foley and the former Rita Flanagan, Dr. Foley grew up in Arlington, where his father was a marketing representative for Chevron Oil and his mother was a church organist and schoolteacher. Family lore has it that Michael Foley was 4 when he decided to become a physician.

He graduated from Arlington Catholic High School and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He then went to UMass Medical School in Worcester, graduating in 1976.

Advertisement



The summer after his first year at medical school, Dr. Foley took a biochemistry course at Tulane University in New Orleans and met Anne Higgins, who was working at his dorm's front desk.

They were friends at first, until Dr. Foley asked her out on his last night in New Orleans. They dined on gumbo and promised to stay in touch through letters.

After three years of a long-distance romance, she finished law school at Tulane and moved north to be with Dr. Foley. They married in 1977.

Living in Arlington, Dr. Foley often encouraged high school students who wanted to become doctors.

"The word got out in Arlington that if you wanted to go to UMass Medical School, you should talk to Mike," his wife said. "He would have kids over every couple of weeks."

For 15 years Dr. Foley served as a trustee in the University of Massachusetts system, and in 2009 he was awarded the Distinguished Alumni Service Award from the UMass Amherst Alumni Association. He was a founding member of the University of Massachusetts Club in Boston.

Dr. Foley was involved in organizations such as the New England chapter of the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America, which honored his contributions in 1998. He also worked with the American Liver Foundation, which gave him an award for excellence in 1994. He was a member of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the American Gastroenterology Association, and was a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology.

Advertisement



Gonzalez said he worked with Dr. Foley the Friday before he died, and that his mentor was "right on his game," seeing several patients and still cracking jokes.

"He never stopped working," said Bob Buckley, one of Dr. Foley's childhood friends. "I would say to him 'When are you going to retire?' And he said he never planned on retiring because there was always going to be someone out there to take care of."

A service has been held for Dr. Foley, who in addition to his wife leaves two sons, Michael of St. Petersburg, Fla., and Patrick of Boston; a daughter, Elizabeth of Arlington; a brother, John of Virginia; and three sisters, Judith McManamon of Falmouth, Maryalice of Arlington, and Paula J. Leibovitz of Winthrop.

Dr. Foley had served as a trustee of Por-Cristo, a Brighton-based charitable medical group that works with at-risk women and children in Latin America, and taken part in fact-finding missions to Ecuador and the Dominican Republic.

He might have been happiest, though, traveling through Fenway Park. "Working as the fan's physician is the dream mix between my interest in sports and medicine," he said.

Depending on the day, Dr. Foley might diagnose patients with anything from a heart attack to heartburn.

"The trouble is some fans are so fanatic they won't let a little thing like a heart condition keep them from their game," Dr. Foley said. "We've had more than one person refuse our advice and go back to their seats."

Advertisement




Jasper Craven can be reached at jasper.craven@globe.com.