Anthony Siciliano

COLUMBUS — Anthony D. Siciliano, a Toledo native and a division chief counsel for the Ohio Department of Commerce, who had spoken publicly since high school about dealing with cystic fibrosis, died Tuesday in Ohio State Universitys Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital. He was 43. Mr. Siciliano was an infant when doctors said he had the congenital disease, which can affect breathing and digestion. He received a double lung transplant in 2000. Over the last year, he was increasingly ill, his mother, Linda Webb, said. He received another set of lungs Jan. 18. It was one complication after another, his mother said. He did his best. We were all there cheering him on, but it was just too much.Advertisement Mr. Sicilianos first job after passing the Ohio bar examination in January, 2001, was as a judicial law clerk for the Ohios 3rd District Court of Appeals in Lima. He was a former Ohio assistant attorney general. Most recently, he was chief counsel for the division in the Ohio Department of Commerce that regulates banks, credit unions, and consumer finance companies. He was working on modernizing the Ohio banking code, said Matthew Walker, deputy chief counsel for the division. He was very thoughtful, patient, said Mr. Walker, which made him a great person to work for as well. He was born Nov. 26, 1972, and grew up in the Old Orchard neighborhood of West Toledo. He was 4 years old when a local florist urged customers to Be A Hero For Tony and sold hero bouquets, donating money from each sale to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Mr. Siciliano didnt share much afterwards, until his senior year at St. Johns Jesuit High School. At an off-campus retreat, he spoke to fellow students about his condition. It did so much for me to be honest, and to be me, Mr. Siciliano told The Blade in 1991. And it turns out that some of them even knew about me, but didnt care. It made me feel a lot better.Advertisement For his high school senior project, he worked with the team at the University of Michigan that discovered the genetic basis of cystic fibrosis. He later received his bachelors degree from Michigan. By his third year studying law at the University of Toledo, his condition required him to take a break. He and his mother headed to the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he waited for his lung transplant, which he got in March, 2000. That summer he took a rock-climbing class with a fellow double-lung recipient. He later competed in the U. S. Transplant Olympics, returned to school and received his law degree from UT. Hed served on advisory boards for Lifeline of Ohio and biomedical sciences at Ohio State. Surviving are his wife, Deborah, whom he married May 20, 2010; daughter, Quin; mother, Linda Webb; father, Roy Siciliano; stepfather, Luke Black; stepmother, Karlene Siciliano; stepsister, Kathi Domalski, and stepbrother, Bret Black. Arrangements are pending at Schoedinger Funeral and Cremation Services in the Columbus area. The family suggests tributes to Lifeline of Ohio. Mark Zaborney at: [email protected] or 419-724-6182. First Published February 18, 2016, 5:00 a.m.