I Still Love You

I Still Love You is about my dad, Bob Pontius MD. He was a pioneering heart surgeon in Pittsburgh PA who saw himself as different. The Heinz History Center Detre Library and Archive accessioned I Still Love You and related photographs in 2024 making them available to the public for research and enjoyment. Below are some of the photos.

1940s: Mary Ellen Pontius with her brother, Bob. She was an amateur photographer who lived with a mental illness. The Heinz History Center has included her photos in their collection documenting people with disabilities.

1960: My sister, Helen, strong arms me on the back porch of the Pontius home in Greensburg, PA. (photo by Mary Ellen Pontius)

1965: Posing on Easter Sunday with mom, dad and my sisters, Helen, Louisa and Joan, in the backyard of our rented house in Pittsburgh, PA. (photo by Mary Ellen Pontius)

1973: I'm knitting a scarf for my boyfriend while seated in the family room of the home my parents had built on Wilmar Drive in Fox Chapel, PA. (photo by Mary Ellen Pontius)

1973: Thanksgiving dinner is served on the dinning room table of our Wilmar Drive home. (photo by Mary Ellen Pontius)

1950's: Navy Surgeon Bob Pontius with Army Lieutenant Mary Truslow relaxing at Fort Dix VA, where they met. (photographer unknown)

1953: The marriage of Mary Truslow and Bob Pontius outside of Washington DC. (photographer unknown)

1960s: Bob introducing the use of the heart lung machine to surgery at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh PA. (photographer unknown)

1960's: Bob with fellow surgeon Lucio Parenzan during Lucio's training with Bob at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh PA. (photographer unknown)

1960s: Bob Pontius and Lucio Parenzan in surgery. (photographer unknown)

1960s: Bob with children operated on by Lucio and Bob in Bergamo Italy marking the introduction of modern pediatric heart surgery to Northern Italy. (photographer unknown)