The only son among four children, Dr. Samuel Cascio was born in Chicago on Aug. 27, 1924, to Joseph and Josephine (Guercio) Cascio. His father, a barber, was born in Baltimore, and his mother emigrated from Cefalù, Sicily, with her family.

Cascio grew up in the Portage Park neighborhood on the Northwest Side of Chicago with his maternal grandmother, aunt, uncle and cousins living two blocks away. He often brought his grandmother home for visits. “She would have a cane and I would hold her hand walking all that way,” Cascio says. “She just loved me for that.”