At 71 years old, Dr. Paul Cavalli has a handful of what he considers life’s treasures: his four daughters, his four grandchildren, and the hospital he founded in 1976.
Retiring after 25 years, Cavalli looked back at the long road that has made him not just a big part of development of Secaucus, but a part of the larger history of the emerging Hudson County medical profession over the last half century.
Born in Jersey City Heights in a home in which his great aunt now lives, Cavalli moved to Union City when he was very young and eventually settled into a home at 16th Street and Central Avenue. He was one of the many urban children who attended Thomas A. Edison Elementary school and served in the local Boy Scouts.
While scouting would become a lifelong passion that would win him the organization’s highest honors as a boy and later as an adult, Cavalli had another dream that may have been seemingly unrealistic for a poor boy in those years: he wanted to become a doctor.
Cavili described his father as a man who had a hard time for a while, but who eventually managed to make some money, and his mother as a Manhattan hat-maker whose designs once became an American fad. In 1943, when money became more abundant, Cavalli’s father sent him to LaSalle Military Academy in Oakdale, N.Y., which Cavalli called “a lesson in discipline as well as accidemics.”
“It was strict education,” Cavalli said, noting that he had previously been something of a troublemaker, a matter the school managed to straighten out.
From this point, his educational road led him to Manhattan College, which he attended from 1947 to 1951, then onto Fordham University where he studied chemistry and political science.
Even then, he had aspirations of becoming a doctor. He said in deciding on a career, he thought being a doctor would allow him to help people while also providing him with a good income.
A trip to Europe
Although accepted into several prestigious universities to continue his education, Cavalli took a break from book studies to get some practical experience and went to Europe as a CARE worker.
CARE, a private international relief and development organization, was founded in the aftermath of World War II, and was originally formed to help survivors of the conflict in Europe and Asia. Cavalli found himself in what was then Yugoslavia until Tito, the communist leader there, order relief workers out of the country.
He managed to pay his way to Switzerland, and from there, he decided to visit his aunt, who lived in a small town near Turin, Italy. Although he had been accepted by two or three prestigious universities in the United States – including Georgetown – Dr. Cavalli allowed his aunt to register him at the University of Turin, where he studied medicine from 1951 to 1956.
He returned to Hudson County in late 1956 serving his internship at Jersey City Medical Center and his residency at Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital. He opened a private practice in Union City in 1957.
In 1965, he joined with two other physicians and opened the first cooperative medical group partnership in Hudson County area. This was comprised of three adjoining storefronts in Union City. Three years later, in 1968, this group became the first medical professonal association in the state and one of only seven in the United States.
“People kept telling me it wasn’t possible to do some of the things we did, but we managed to do them anyway,” Cavalli said.
A diverse career
Over the years, Cavalli served as police and fire surgeon for Union City – a position he held until 1985. He served as a member of the Criminal Justice Planning Committee in Union City from 1971 to 1981. He was also a member of the International Narcotic Enforcement Officers Assocaition. He said people using illegal drugs gave him a bad feeling. “I guess that’s true with most doctors,” he said.
In addition, Cavalli sat on the board of directors of the New Jersey Hospital Assoication, the Hudson County United Way and the Harmony Early Learning Center. He was also been an active member of the American Hospital Assocation, the American Cancer Society, and the Girls Scouts organization. He even served as a sheriff in Hudson County, although most of his political career was focused around Union City. He was an elected member of the Union City Board of Education during the 1970s, but said he resigned because he was uncomfortable with some of the things going on in Union City at the time.
While he claimed he had no heroes growing up, Cavalli said William Musto, former mayor of Union City, was like a father to him, and said he was greatly disappointed when Musto and many other people associated with that administraton were later indicted and convicted of numerous crimes in federal court.
A dream come true
Over the years, Cavalli worked in numerous local hospitals including St. Mary’s in Hoboken, St. Francis in Jersey City, and the legendary Doctor’s Hospital that eventually evolved in the North Hudson Hospital in Union City. Cavalli perpetually dreams of having a hospital of his own.
In 1968 Cavalli began to think seriously about starting his own hospital, although plans did not emerge until 1971 when he approached friends and colleagues with the idea.
From 123 doctors in New York and New Jersey, Cavalli managed to raise $1 million, $750,000 of this went towards the purchase of the land. He sought funds from local banks that agreed to lend him up to $12 million for the project, and forged agreements with medical suppliers that would allow him to run the facility once opened.
Hartz Mountain Industries, then proposed a road along the western side of Secaucus between the residental property and the river, and this seemed like an ideal location for a hospital.
“I looked at other areas, even the place where Palisades hospital is now, but decided against them,” he said.
Calvali recalled standing on a 20 acre site covered with gravel and stone along the Hackensack River with Dr. Frank Primich looking for a place to put the cornerstone to the hospital in 1972. Hospital construction broke ground in early 1973.
The location was ideal for a number of reasons, Cavalli said. It was in a location that was remote from all of the existing hospitals, yet still within sight of the Empire State Building – by which he meant he could still attract numerous patients. Perhaps he had a vision as to the massive development that would soon take place. He certainly had the ear of Leonard Stern, the owner of Hartz Mountain.
“I told him, he shouldn’t just build warehouses,” Cavalli said, recalling that moment three decades ago. “I told him he should put in residental units, stores and other businesses, and that’s what he did.”
But the hospital paved the way for many of those things, and the hospital’s construction was soon followed by the construction of Harmon Cove and various other businesses.
Meadowlands – then known as Riverside – Hospital was to become the first hospital run as a for-profit corporation in the state of New Jersey.
When the doors opened for the first time in 1976, Cavalli called the project “an impossible dream made possible.” Within two weeks, hospital was 90 percent full, and had a staff of 900 doctors.
Changes occurred in the health care industry since then that no one could have expected, and Cavalli has been credited with adopting policies and forming partnerships to help keep up with the changes.
The hospital was renamed Meadowlands Hospital in 1986 to reflect the growing importance of the region. At this point, the hospital also became a non-profit entity. By the year 2000, the hospital was seeing 40,000 patients a year.
Overcoming tragedies
From the day the hospital opened its doors in 1976, Cavalli has played a pivotal role, serving as the chief executive officer from 1976 to 1991. In 1985, Cavalli suffered a major heart attack. The hospital, managed by a 14 physical board of directors, hired an administrator to handle the day-to-day operations. But he continued as executive until 1991 then as the chairman of the board for the hospital from 1991 to 1994, when the hospital was purchased by Literty Health Care System.
From 1994 to his retiring on April 2, 2001, he resumed his role as president of the hospital.
Cavalli’s personal life has not been easy. Although people close to him worry about the tragedies that have touched his life over the years, Cavalli doesn’t shy away from them, though his voice grows sad and his eyes misty when he recalls the brain tumor that took his first wife’s life and the car crash that stole from him one of his grandchildren.
Seated in his office overlooking the wide sweep of the Hackensack Meadowlands and the glitter of sunlight off surface of the water, Cavalli seemed caught in a web of sadness, as if his retirement from the hospital was yet one more tragedy he would have to overcome. He said not sure what he will do, and said he is a little scared.
“I want to do what I can to make sure the hospital survives,” he said, “even if I’m taking on a minor role.”