Ariel Mengarini, Youth
Ariel Mengarini
January 25 1998
MENGARINI, Ariel.
On January 9, 1998, Ariel Mengarini, M.D. board certified psychiatrist, born October 19, 1919 in Rome to what the Dictionary of American Biography calls “a distinguished Roman family.”
Ariel, with his mother, the sculptress Fausta Vittoria Mengarini, came to the United States when he was still a young boy. He finished his education in Washington, D.C. and in New York.
When he was 23, he became United States Amateur Chess Champion. Chess was a lifelong obsession for him. He became a United States citizen in 1942. He honorably served in World War II. He was a Captain in the United States Army Medical Corps-Neuropsychiatrist. In Germany, he made part of a team to take over the administration of a large prison-of-war hospital.
He received three campaign medals and the World War II Victory Medal. Honorably discharged in October 1946. He worked for the United States Government as a psychiatrist. He was devoted to his patients and said that he was “proud to have helped a great many of them.”
Upon retiring, he continued his intense interest in the game of chess, playing in tournaments throughout the rest of his life. He wrote a book on chess: “Predicament in 2-Dimensions: The Thinking of a Chess Player,” which had three printings.
He wrote chess articles and articles on his medical specialty. He was an avid reader with a wide interest which included history, philosophy, poetry, fiction and the study of the human brain.
He is survived by his loving wife Aristea Drivas Mengarini, his daughter Athena, his son Will, and by nephews and nieces in Maryland, along with their children and grandchildren and by first cousins in Italy, Germany and Sweden.
He died of brain cancer after an illness lasting eight months.
“Comforter, where, where is your comforting?”
