I met the Tolleth family 50 years ago when they became neighbors in Concord, around the time my parents were divorcing.  Hale’s kids became good friends and he acted as a surrogate father for me through high school.  My friends and I volunteered at various fund raisers that he was involved in for the American Cancer Society.  I lost touch with the family when I went off to college, but 10 years later I sustained a bad head wound in a bad car accident.  The ER doctor told me I need plastic surgery and I asked if Hale was available.  Within the hour he was stitching me up and lecturing me about my driving.  Thirty five years later, I don’t have the scar to remember him by today (which is the goal of a plastic surgeon), but I have great memories and a lot of gratitude for the kindness Hale and his family showed me many years ago.  Godspeed Papa Doc.

I met Dr. Tolleth for the first time at his Concord office across from Mt. Diablo Hospital in 1970, I was only thirteen years old. We connected and I knew I was in the best of hands. I had two reconstruct surgeries that were so precise that when people meet me for the first time they have no idea I was born with a cleft lip. He was and will forever remain my hero. RIP I will never forget u