Dr. Proinnsias "Frank" O'Croinin's Obituary
Proinnsias (“Frank”) O’Croinin, a longtime Anne Arundel County pediatrician and former Maryland State Air Surgeon, died on Saturday, March 18, 2023 at Anne Arundel Medical Center, a hospital in which had made rounds for four decades. He was 85.
The cause of death was congestive heart failure.
Dr. O’Croinin was born in 1937 in Blackrock, part of the Rathdown suburb of Dublin, Ireland. He was raised in nearby Stillorgan and educated at the Christian Brothers College in Monkstown Park. Dr. O’Croinin was the second youngest of five children: three girls and two boys. As teenagers, Dr. O'Croinin and his older brother, Fionan (d. 2022), answered a knock at family door from a “Pioneer.” Pioneers were members of an organization whose mission it was to encourage temperance among Irish Catholics. Both boys pledged to “abstain from intoxicating drink.” And from that day forward, neither would consume alcohol again.
Dr. O’Croinin enrolled in the University College Dublin (UCD) in 1955 and graduated in 1962 with the equivalent of a modern medical degree.
At UCD, Dr. O’Croinin was a member of the varsity soccer team and played in the 1961 Collingwood Cup—a tournament that has been played annually by clubs in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland since 1914 (with breaks for events such as the Irish War of Independence). After defeating Queen’s University in the semifinals, UCD faced the Royal College of Surgeons (RCS) in the final match. The game was held at Celtic Park in Belfast. Although UCD was reported to have dictated the first half, the score was nil-nil at the midpoint. In the second half, RCS took the lead with a 30-yard drive. UCD quickly equalized. The game was won when a left half—whose name was misspelled in the newspaper report as “Cronan”—broke free and “drove home a grand goal.”
After completing internships and residencies at several hospitals in Dublin, including St. Vincent’s Hospital, Dr. O’Croinin witnessed what some would later refer to as Ireland’s “brain drain”—many of his medical colleagues left Ireland for positions abroad. Having previously scoffed at the idea of ever leaving Ireland, let alone southeast Dublin, he was told that if he wanted to continue pursuing a career as a physician, he had two options: move to England or move to the United States. Perceiving this as no choice at all, Dr. O’Croinin laid down 74 Irish pounds for a one-way flight on Aer Lingus from Dublin to New York to Baltimore. He arrived in Baltimore on January 9, 1965 and became a pediatric resident at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.
While working at Johns Hopkins, Dr. O’Croinin met Saima Innos—who 15 years earlier had immigrated from Estonia under circumstances far different than his own. They married in 1967, and later had two children. Upon hearing of Dr. O’Croinin’s death, long time neighbors in Sherwood Forest commented that they couldn’t imagine seeing Saima without Dr. O’Croinin by her side: “they were always together.”
Dr. O’Croinin left Johns Hopkins in 1968 for a position at Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo. On May 19, 1969—while not yet an American citizen—Dr. O’Croinin was ordered to report to Fort Sam Houston for four weeks of officer orientation. He’d been drafted. Dr. O’Croinin, with his wife and newborn, was stationed at Camp Zama, south of Tokyo from June 1969 to August 1972, where he served as a Captain in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps.
After returning for a two-year fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. O’Croinin moved to Anne Arundel County in 1974 to begin a practice that would span more than 40 years. Following time as a solo practitioner, he joined the Pediatric Group in 1989 and later helped to form what was then known as Nighttime Pediatrics. His longtime colleague, Robert Graw, Jr., explained that Dr. O’Croinin was “completely committed to medicine, his patients, and the other physicians in the community.” Known for always having a joke ready, he employed his Irish humor to ease tensions and lighten the nerves of concerned parents and patients.
Dr. O’Croinin returned to military service in 1986—this time voluntarily—as a flight surgeon in the Maryland Air National Guard. He rose to the position of State Air Surgeon (akin to a Chief Medical Officer) before retiring in 2004 as a Colonel. His time in the Guard featured deployments to Peru, Gabon, Oman, and Estonia, among other places. Dr. Milad Pooran, a former colleague in the Maryland Air National Guard and current State Air Surgeon in Connecticut, remarked that he continues to teach lessons he first learned from Dr. O’Croinin.
Dr. O’Croinin is survived by his wife, his daughter, Eva O’Croinin Marino, his son Conor O’Croinin, and four grandchildren (Joseph, Rose, Ciara, and Liam). He is also survived by his sisters: Maura and Una, as well as countless nieces, nephews, and extended family on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as many friends and neighbors.
He will be missed by all who knew him.
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