Dr. Michael Joseph Panella, 50, of Moon Township passed away the evening of January 12, 2014 at Sewickley Hospital. Born August 2, 1963 in New Castle, he was the son of Arnold and Joan Tropea Panella. Michael leaves behind his parents and his close friend, Kim Jackson. He is also survived by his son, Parker Nathaniel Abrams of Blacksburg, VA; brothers, Edward Arnold Panella and wife Johnna of Lock Haven, PA and Philip James Panella of Pittsburgh; niece, Alyssa Carlene; and nephew, Matthew Edward.
Michael was a 1981 graduate of Neshannock High School and a 1985 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Michigan, where he graduated magna cum laude and earned his degree in cellular and molecular biology. He was elected a member of Alpha Omega Alpha, the honorary medical society. He graduated summa cum laude from the Medical College of Pennsylvania (now Drexel Medical School of Philadelphia). He attended medical school under an Air Force scholarship. He served in the Air Force upon completion of his residency. A board certified pathologist, Dr. Panella served as a staff pathologist at the U.S. Air Force Medical Center at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois. He served in the Air Force from 1995 to 1999 as a major in the 375th Medical Corps stationed at Scott Air Force Base. He received the Air Force Commendation Medal for Meritorious Service. He completed a fellowship in 1985 in derma-pathology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC. Discharged from the Air Force in the mid 1990′s, he worked in a private laboratory in Salem, VA. His career in medicine and teaching medicine had taken him to various places. He has done private practicing for hospitals in forensics; he has spent his career in Newberry, SC at the University of Missouri in Columbia, MO. At Missouri, he was an adjunct professor in pathology and served both the medical school and the law school there. He practiced general pathology from 1999 to 2006 in towns in Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. He enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh law school as a full time student and received his law degree in 2005, graduating cum laude. He had served as a medical examiner fellowship at the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office in Pittsburgh. He also served as an associate medical examiner for Allegheny County. Dr. Panella was admitted to the Pennsylvania and Tennessee Bars. He currently was working at Quest Diagnostic Center in Green Tree. He also was teaching forensic law at the University of Pittsburgh Law School. He just recently co-authored a book titled The Forensic Autopsy for Lawyers.
Visitation will take place Friday from 5pm to 8pm at Ed and Don DeCarbo Funeral Home and Crematory 3000 Wilmington Rd.
A procession will leave the funeral home Saturday at 9:30am for a Mass of Christian Burial at 10am at St. Camillus Church, officiated by Father Thomas Lewandowski.
Entombment will take place at Castleview Memorial Gardens.