Dr. Laura Napolitano, Toms River East Graduate, Dies At 54

A memorial service has been set for January for Dr. Laura Napolitano, a Toms River High School East graduate who was elected Girls State governor for New Jersey in 1980.

Dr. Napolitano died Dec . 14, 2017, in Vancouver, WA, of early onset Alzheimer's. She was 54, according to her obituary in the Asbury Park Press.

Dr. Napolitano was born in New Rochelle, NY in 1963 and relocated to Toms River in 1970. She was student council president at Toms River High School East, was varsity soccer goalie, and her class's salutatorian, in addition to being Girls State governor.

She graduated Williams College cum laude, the University of Rochester medical school, and interned with Harvard Medical School at Massachusetts General. Dr. Napolitano also was selected as a two-year research scholar at Howard Hughes Medical Institute (NIH). Dr. Napolitano served as a staff internist for the National Health Corps in Phoenix, AZ, after which she won San Francisco-based fellowships with the University of Callifornia at San Francisco and the Gladstone Institute. She was appointed the institute's first female senior investigator and served as an assistant clinical professor in Infectious Disease at UCSF. Beginning in 2008, Dr. Napolitano served distinguished research roles at two major pharmaceuticals.

Outside of work, Dr. Napolitano was a school volunteer, kids' sports coach, and an amateur athlete who loved softball and competed in triathlons.

She is survived by her spouse, Ingrid Mehlhorn and son, Christopher Napolitano-Mehlhorn, both of San Francisco; her mother, Marcia Napolitano, of Whiting, NJ; three siblings, Carol, Daniel, and Susan; and two nephews, Joseph Andrews and Kaleb Williams. Nearly 30 cousins and countless friends from all stages of Laura's life also survive and mourn her.

There will be a celebration of Laura's life in January in San Francisco. In lieu of flowers, the family requests charitable gifts in Laura's name either to Alzheimer's research/related charities or for HIV research, her specialty.

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