Elmer F. Galioni, MD

Mike Galioni and I were the "young Turks" of the California Department of Mental Hygiene in the 1950s and 60s. As a resident at the Langley Porter Clinic, he directed a project at Stockton State Hospital. It demonstrated that a "total push" to rehabilitate and discharge patients long confined in state mental hospitals could improve their well-being in the hospital and move many back to their communities and families, if supported with advanced community treatment and support.

That was how Mike and I met. He and I co-authored, with others, "A Long Range Plan for Mental Health Services in California," published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in May 1963. It was the blueprint for the Department of Mental Hygiene for nearly a decade.

We continued to collaborate when he became Deputy Director of Hospital Services and I, Deputy Director of Community Services.

I left the Department at the end of 1964 to develop and direct the Mental Health Center at Sutter Hospitals. He stayed until 1972, changing the whole way of life at state mental hospitals. He left to develop and direct the Mental Health Center at Eskaton American River Hospital.

Mike was active in a number of professional associations during his career, including our medical society and the California Medical Association. He was a life fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a past president of the Central California Psychiatric Association and of the Sacramento Chaper of the California Psychiatric Association.

Our paths often crossed; we made sure they did. Mike was always jovial, happy with himself, his family and his friends, convivial and generous.

His generousity extended to the many he served medically, without recompense. He had a hearty love of family, near and far, and a propensity for "adopting" anyone anywhere as Italian family if they shared his ethnic joy and cheer.

The late Jim Lowry, former Director of the Department; Truman Schoenberger, former attorney there; Lee Helsel, former chief of Rehab Therapies there; Al Calais, journalist and former Public Information Officer there, met regularly with Mike for poker and story-swapping for over 40 years. As the poker slowed, the stories and the fermented drinks flowed.

Truman Schoenberger described Mike as "a heck of a good guy, but not a very good golfer" and Al Calais was so moved by his flood of memories of their shared Catholic education in San Francisco that this gifted wordsmith was too moved for words.

All of us remember and treasure Mike's joie de vivre, which we know will be a comfort for all who survive him, especially his wife of 39 years, Avis, and children Joan and Paul; plus his seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

— Ed Rudin, MD