Donald Cerva

October 25, 1952 - November 21, 2020

Costco lost a loyal customer on November 21, 2020. Donald Stuart Cerva Jr., 68, passed peacefully after a brief illness with his family at his side. Don is sorely missed and survived by his wife Cris Cerva, children Becky Jelinek (Drew), Amanda Cerva, and Tim Cerva, siblings Nancy Koren (Mike) and Alan Cerva, Uncle Walter Buchwald (Darlene Buchwald), and numerous cousins. Don is predeceased by his parents, Norma Buchwald Cerva and Donald Cerva. Don was born in Chicago where he grew up among his extended family of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. After he completed medical school and a residency program in Emergency Medicine at Northwestern University, he moved to California and met his wife, Cris. They moved to Chicago where he completed a residency in Radiology at University of Illinois, followed by a fellowship in Trauma Radiology at University of Maryland. Whew, and he still talked about his desire to attend Veterinary School! Don’s passion was teaching, so he accepted academic appointments at LSU, followed by Yale. His family then settled in the DC suburbs of Northern Virginia where he practiced Emergency Radiology for 20 years. Don enjoyed his work life and traumatizing his family with gory medical tales. He was planning to retire in January 2021. While you might not guess it from his enjoyment of the elderly minutiae (e.g. snagging the IHOP senior discount and taking inventory of who ate the second to last Hostess cake), Don lead an active and adventuresome life. He completed marathons, triathlons, a half Ironman, and dive aboard photo trips in Palau. Don was an avid cheerleader for his children in their various academic and athletic pursuits, and dabbled in coaching in his spare time. He enjoyed his vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, in addition to heading south to Fort Myers in the winter. His hobbies included boasting about his expansive iTunes library, wildlife photography, surfing Amazon, the idea of learning to play new instruments (ukulele, steel drums), and exasperating his family during long car rides with a harmonica he kept in the glovebox of his car. Don will be fondly remembered for his diligence in providing for his family, his witty (sometimes off-kilter) humor, and being the foundation of a household built with laughter. May he rest in peace. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Smithsonian Zoo. https://nationalzoo.si.edu/support/donate This service is private and may be viewed via livestreaming due to COVID-19 restrictions. To view the service livestream and recording please come back to this obituary website. We will be streaming directly to this obituary’s tribute wall. The video will display as a post on the tribute wall when we start the service. Please click play when the video is posted and available. If you are having technical difficulty you can view this service later as the video is recorded and will remain on this page. We appreciate your understanding during these extremely difficult times.