Joseph W. Foote, oral and maxillofacial surgeon

Joseph W. Foote, 61, of Ardmore, an oral and maxillofacial surgeon, died Friday of lymphoma at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

In a recent tribute to Dr. Foote, a colleague, Peter Quinn, wrote: "During his 30-year career, hundreds of dentists and physicians referred complex patients to him. He was nationally recognized for his particular expertise in microsurgical repair of maxillofacial nerve injuries and was clearly the 'doctor of last resort' for patients with debilitating facial pain."

Quinn, former chairman of the Department of Oral Maxillofacial Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, is senior vice president for clinical practices, University of Pennsylvania Health System.

Quinn met Dr. Foote in dental school and introduced him to his sister, Susan Quinn. She and Dr. Foote married in 1977.

After learning of his death, patients sent numerous e-mails to Dr. Foote's family. One woman said he "saved my face after a devastating car accident." Another praised his "care and compassion" after she sustained nerve damage when a wisdom-tooth surgery performed by another doctor went wrong. Several patients wrote that Dr. Foote always asked after their families whenever they visited the office.

More than 1,500 people attended Dr. Foote's viewing Sunday night at Chadwick & McKinney Funeral Home in Ardmore and his Funeral Mass yesterday at Our Mother of Good Counsel Roman Catholic Church in Bryn Mawr, a daughter, Emily, said. Former patients told the family how grateful they were to her father, his daughter said. "He never turned patients away no matter what the circumstance," she said.

Since 1989, Dr. Foote had been chief of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and at the Philadelphia Veterans Administration Medical Center. He maintained offices at Penn Medicine at Radnor and at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center in Philadelphia. He was clinical associate professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery at Penn's School of Dental Medicine. He lectured often and contributed more than 60 articles to professional journals.

A native of New York, Dr. Foote received a bachelor's degree from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine and served a dental internship at Philadelphia General Hospital. He served a residency in anesthesiology at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and completed a residency in oral and maxillofacial surgery at Penn's School of Dental Medicine.

In 1985, he earned a medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania and then completed a medical residency at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. He was appointed to the faculty at Penn's School of Dental Medicine in 1986.

He was an excellent athlete in his youth, his daughter said, and competed in Penn graduate school intramurals on the dental school's "Extractors" football and basketball teams.

While his children were growing up, he attended all their sports events and spent time with them on weekends and on vacation in Martha's Vineyard. His hobbies were his family and gardening, Emily Foote said. He had a gorgeous backyard and grew vegetables in a plot at Haverford College, she said.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Dr. Foote is survived by sons Joey, Travis, and Conor; daughters Katie, Meredith, and Amanda; his father, Joseph W. Foote Sr.; six sisters; and a brother.

Burial was in St. Paul's Cemetery, Ardmore.