Dr. Charles G. Massion

DR. CHARLES G. MASSION Memorial services for Dr. Charles Massion will be held in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 20th, 2009. Charles George Massion, MD was born August 2, 1925 in Salt Lake City, Utah and passed away in Cincinnati on February 25, 2009 after a brief illness. During World War II he served as an Army medic in France. He met his wife, Iia Tarmas while attending the University of Colorado in Boulder. He graduated from the University of Colorado Medical School in 1953, and after a rotating internship, moved to Cortez 1954 to begin his medical practice. The first day in Cortez, while looking for office space, the new physicians, Drs. Massion and Wood visited with Jimmy Barrett who was in the process of renovating a house he had recently moved from Dolores to Cortez on the lot known as 212 West Montezuma Avenue. Mr. Barrett was pleased to offer this space to the new doctors to start up their practice. The new medical facility was opened but Dr. Wood later returned to the Denver area to practice. While in Cortez, Dr. Massion practiced general adult medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics, orthopedics and general surgery. He was a family physician to townspeople, farmers and their families. Dr. Massion was elected to the Montezuma County School Board and also served as the County Coroner. During this time, another physician, Dr. Peter Vogel joined the practice but decided to enter into a different field of medicine and moved to the Oregon area. In 1962, Dr. Massion closed his medical facility and moved to Denver to begin specialty training in Pathology. During this time, he did research at Yale University School in New Haven, CT and at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C. In 1969 he joined the faculty of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine in Hartford, CT. Chic (known as “Doc” to some) an early computer nerd and electronics expert, became an innovator in designing computer systems for medical laboratories. From 1976 until his retirement in 1992, he was the Director of Laboratory Medicine at the Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, OH. He also stayed up-to-date with changes in computers and electronics and spent many years of his retirement cataloguing and digitizing thousands of photos he had taken. Chic and Iia traveled all over the world and enjoyed opera, ballet, art museums, nature, mushroom hunting and photographing the area they visited. After leaving southwestern Colorado, “Doc” and Iia would return to Cortez whenever possible ( usually during elk or bird hunting seasons) to revisit old friends and to enjoy nature, hunting, or traveling to the mountains around Rico or Dunton. He is survived by his beloved wife, Iia; four daughters, Dr. Charlea Massion and Maia Farrell of Santa Cruz, CA., Trina Massion of Eureka, CA and Cheo Massion of San Rafael, CA; four grand-daughters, Tai Massion of Eureka, CA., Aiesha Volow in the Peace Corps, Swaziland, Korina Farrell of Davis, CA. and Sage Farrell of Santa Cruz, CA. Donations in his memory may be directed to the charity of your choice. Mrs. Iia Massion may be contacted at 8135 Beechmont Ave., Apt. W347, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Phone (513) 388-0384.