Terrance R. Malloy, retired surgeon and former chief of urology at Pennsylvania Hospital, has died at 89

Terrence R. Malloy, 89, of Bryn Mawr, longtime doctor and clinical professor, retired surgeon, former chief of urology at Pennsylvania Hospital, mentor, and veteran, died Wednesday, May 8, of Alzheimer’s disease at Waverly Heights retirement community in Gladwyne.

Dr. Malloy studied engineering at Yale University in the mid-1950s. But he found, after three years in the Army, that he really wanted to be a doctor and professor.

So he graduated from medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1963, completed his residency in urology in 1968, and served as chief of urology, clinical professor, mentor, and role model at Pennsylvania Hospital from 1968 until 2012. He was an expert in stone disease, sexual impotence, and genitourinary cancer, and a pioneer in laser therapy, and prosthetic and gender-affirming surgery.

“He was brave and took on ideas and challenges that others thought were crazy or couldn’t be done,” said his daughter Kelly. “In doing so, he helped so many patients.”

He was a popular clinical professor to hundreds of residents for more than 30 years, and he directed the hospital’s urology residency training program, chaired the operating room committee, and was president of the medical staff. In 1974, he made news in The Inquirer’s Sports section when he performed kidney surgery on 76ers star Billy Cunningham.

Former colleagues said in online tributes that he was “compassionate” and “devoted,” and “cared about his staff.” One said he was “a giant in Philadelphia urology, a brilliant surgeon, a prize of our profession.”

Dr. Malloy helped affiliate the hospital’s urology staff with Penn’s urology program, and former hospital colleagues said: “He built a urologic institution.” He served an internship and residency at Philadelphia Hospital, now defunct, in the 1960s and joined several of his former students for his final years in practice at Temple University’s urology department. He retired in 2019.

He served as president of the Mid-Atlantic section of the American Urological Association, was active with its national office of education, and earned the AUA’s 2008 Gold-Headed Cane Award for “outstanding contributions to the profession.” He was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and belonged to the Society of University Urologists and other groups.

He wrote more than 150 scholarly papers and gave nearly 500 formal presentations. He was a urology expert in court cases, a frequent guest on medical-related TV and radio talk shows, and featured in The Inquirer and Daily News. He also won the 2008 Good Samaritan Award from Pennsylvania Hospital.

He joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Yale, was a paratrooper and first lieutenant in the Army after college, and made 32 jumps with the 82nd Airborne Division. He spent dozens of memorable summers in Stone Harbor, N.J., and was captain of the beach patrol in the 1960s, a job, he told his family, that was the best he ever had.

He was a star football and lacrosse player at Lower Merion High School in the early 1950s, and inducted into the school’s athletic hall of fame. He was a second-team all-American lacrosse player as a senior at Yale and worked later as a lacrosse referee for Ivy League games and the old U.S. Club Lacrosse Association.

“I look forward to officiating,” he told The Inquirer in 1965. “Frankly, it’s about the only thing that gets me away from the confined pressure of the medical profession.”

Terrence Reed Malloy was born May 27, 1934, in Philadelphia. His family moved to Wynnewood when he was 4, and he graduated from Lower Merion High School in 1952 and Yale in 1956.

He met Michele Munley at Fred’s Tavern in Stone Harbor, and they married in 1970, had daughters Kelly, Tara, and Courtney, and lived in Gladwyne and Bryn Mawr. Stone Harbor was his home away from home, and he invented an improved procedure for beach patrol water rescues when he was a young lifeguard, and dozed often on the dock when he was older.

He was an excellent tennis player, read books about history, and liked movies with John Wayne and James Bond. His family called him “quirky and humorous,” and his granddaughters called him Chief.

“He was a genius, and he never lost his sense of humor,” said his daughter Courtney. His daughter Tara said: “He made you feel so secure and so safe.”

His wife said: “He was loyal and trustworthy, and his character was defined in his friendships. He was a giant of a man.”

In addition to his wife and daughters, Dr. Malloy is survived by two granddaughters and other relatives. Three brothers died earlier.

Services were held May 17.

Donations in his name may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, 225 N. Michigan Ave., Floor 17, Chicago, Ill. 60601.