[Editor’s note: The following obituary appeared in the April/June 1985 edition of Ahimsa (now called American Vegan), the publication of The American Vegan Society.]

Dr. Pietro Rotondi, 93

We have recently learned of the death, in a fire at his home, of Dr. Pietro Rotondi, D.C., N.D., at age 93 on January 10 of this year.

On the weekend following the fire, a memorial picnic was held in Griffith Park, where friends eulogized him.

For many years, Dr. Rotondi was President of the Los Angeles Vegetarian Society; he authored Vegetarian Cookery, Your Vegetarian Baby, and Health and Energy Through Natural Nutrition.

Publication of his works will be continued by the executors of his estate, as he requested. Donations for this purpose may be sent to [updated] 1318 Rossmoyne, Glendale, CA 91207.

We first met Dr. Rotondi in 1961 when we attended meetings in his home and several of his delicious weekly dinners; he loved to feed his friends. Rotondi’s Vegetarian Cookery (first published in 1942) excluded eggs, milk, cheese and dairy products as well as meat, fish, and fowl (he did use some honey); and he was outspoken in condemning these foods from the animal kingdom. Dietary counseling was an essential part of the chiropractic nature-cure he practiced, and he treated people regardless of their ability to pay.

Pietro Rotondi was born in Colesano, Sicily, on February 14, 1891. His father died in 1900 and a few years later, his mother sent him to live with relatives in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1916, he married Clara Sessler. Their first child died at birth. Both Rotondi and his wife were ill with the flu during the great epidemic near the end of World War I. (“People died by the thousands,” Rotondi recalled.) Clara then died giving birth to their second child, who also perished.

Rotondi became a vegetarian in 1919. He moved to Los Angeles, worked at the Broadway department store, began to study Theosophy, and enrolled at the Eclectic College of Chiropractic. He graduated in 1922 and began to practice.

The following words of advice are quoted from the books written by Dr. Rotondi:

 

 

The article goes on to list various recipes from Vegetarian Cookery.

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