Reverence for the Past Will Often Ensure the Success of the Future

Abstract

In many presidential messages, one typically likes to fondly remember those individuals who were inspired you and helped build your individual career. It is important to have reverence for them. Typically, it comes from a specific chapter and time in one’s life. In medical school, Louis RM DelGuercio, MD, chairman of surgery at New York Medical College, was a tremendous inspiration to me in pursuing a career in surgery. A master surgeon in all body cavities, he exemplified the surgeon’s surgeon. He was an early pioneer in the importance of optimizing patients physiologically before surgery, and above all, through all of his achievements, was a true family man. Next was general surgery training at Yale, and there were truly so many individuals who helped me shape my clinical and academic career. These included, but are not limited to, Arthur E Baue, MD, Christopher C Baker, MD, Irvin M Modlin, MD, Richard J Gusberg, MD, Garth H Ballantyne, MD, Robert J Touloukian, MD, Stephen Ariyan, MD, Marc Lorber, MD, Bauer Sumpio, MD, and C Elton Cahow, MD. In Cleveland, during my colon and rectal surgery fellowship, Victor W Fazio, MD, was a master surgeon and a superb mentor. My first academic position after fellowship was at St Louis University, where the department of surgery was built by 2 legends—Rollins Hanlon, MD, former president of the American College of Surgeons and department chairman from 1950 to 1968, and Vallee Willman, MD, who performed the first heart transplant in the Midwest, in St Louis, and who followed Dr Hanlon as chairman, from 1968 to 1993. Their protégé, and a master surgeon himself, Donald L Kaminski, MD, a true triple threat general surgeon, guided my career in both the laboratory and educational arenas while in St Louis.