Claude H. Organ, Jr, MD, as Resident Advisor sity in Cincinnati, Ohio. The sec- ond involves Dr Organ’s lifelong fas- cination with Charles R. Drew, MD, one of his heroes who could have passed for white but insisted on wearing his true color as a badge of honor. Dr Organ always insisted that you had to “stand for something” and that others should know that quality in you. He was enthralled by the life and times of Dr Drew and how he was able to accomplish what he did as a surgeon/scientist when segregation was the order of the day. In fact, Dr Drew refused to join the American College of Surgeons be- cause it refused to admit other well- qualified black surgeons, most of whom he had trained at Howard University. Dr Organ surely must have shared some of Dr Drew’s pain for the remainder of his life after his Texas experience. Several years ago, Dr Organ gave one of the named lec- tures at the opening ceremonies of the American College of Surgeons of which he was president the last year of his life. His topic was “Charles R. Drew: A Doyen of American Sur- gery.” I think that Dr Organ would have been thrilled to have been a contemporary of Dr Drew. His presi- dential address before the Society of Black Academic Surgeons several years ago was entitled “Dr Charles R. Drew: Died Too Soon.” And so did Dr Organ: another surgical doyen who died too soon. Dr Organ would always tell us that he did not want us to be as good as he was; we had to be better than him. We knew that this was impos- sible but it drove us to perhaps be better than we otherwise might have been. He insisted that it all started with hard work, preparation, and persistence. I have often com- mented that I spoke to Dr Organ more than I did my father and was not sure whether that made me a bad son or not. My mother died when I was flying home in August of 2001 from the final planning session for the Organ dinner, and my father died 2 weeks before the dinner. So for the next 4 years, Dr Organ was more than just a mentor. I shall miss him terribly forever, but I will always re- member everything that he taught me and try diligently to live up to his high standards and to pass his teach- ings on to future generations of sur- geons. Accepted for Publication: August 31, 2005. Correspondence: Eddie L. Hoover, MD, State University of New York at Buffalo, 3495 Bailey Ave, Buf- falo, NY (eddie.hoover@med.va .gov). In Memory: Claude H. Organ, Jr, MD The Reassuring Voice of Optimism Across the San Francisco Bay Haile T. Debas, MD One of the great privileges of my aca- demic life has been to have Claude as a close and inspiring friend and colleague. I know others will write about his enormous contributions to American and world surgery. I have, therefore, decided to write more per- sonally and speak to what his pres- ence in Oakland, Calif, meant to me—the reassuring voice of opti- mism across the San Francisco Bay. I will miss the frequent tele- phone calls we exchanged across the San Francisco Bay, sharing our suc- cesses and our challenges. We con- fided in each other problems of the moment, and from my dealings with him, I learned that nothing is more important than having a trusted friend with whom you can share your happy and sad moments. Al- most always, I got off the telephone with Claude with a smile on my face and with the belief in my heart that everything would turn out for the better. And often I got off the tele- phone laughing uncontrollably be- cause, as only Claude could, he had shared a very funny joke that was just appropriate for the occasion. An attribute of Claude that never ceased to inspire me was his uncom- promising commitment to the ca- reer and well-being of his trainees. The calls from the East Bay were of- ten about his trainees and about his plans for their research training. They obviously gave him a great joy and constituted an important part of his academic life. Given all the aca- demic and municipal politics at the time, no one could have been able to establish the stellar general sur- gery residency that Claude created in the East Bay. He had a gift for identifying and recruiting trainees with potential. Once he did, he was totally committed to them as a teacher, mentor, and loving father figure. He made sure that his resi- dents had access to training in the best research laboratories in the best universities in the country. Charac- teristically, even when these resi- dents were away during their re- search training, he kept in close touch with the students and with their supervisors and assured that, at all times and in every way, they were well taken care of profession- ally and personally. I mention these details to indicate how Claude made his trainees his everyday concern. He loved them and was fiercely proud of their accomplishments. Claude was a giant among men, a hero and inspiration to his train- ees and to all minority academic sur- Author Affiliations: Global Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. (REPRINTED) ARCH SURG/ VOL 140, NOV 2005 WWW.ARCHSURG.COM 1037 ©2005 American Medical Association. All rights reserved. Downloaded From: https://jamanetwork.com/ by a Carnegie Mellon University User on 04/05/2021 geons. He was a giant in American surgery and one of the most signifi- cant American academic surgeons of the 20th century. He will be sorely missed for these and all the many other attributes that are described by others in this special edition of the ARCHIVES. But in my personal world, it is that reassuring voice of opti- mism and friendship that fre- quently came on the telephone lines from across the San Francisco Bay that I will miss. Accepted for Publication: August 31, 2005. Correspondence: Haile T. Debas, MD, Global Health Sciences, Uni- versity of California, San Fran- cisco, School of Medicine, 3333 Cali- fornia St, 285, San Francisco, CA 94143-0443 (hdebas@globalhealth .ucsf.edu). West African College of Surgeons Bids Farewell to Claude H. Organ, Jr, MD, MS(Surg), FACS, FRCSSA, FRACS, FRCS(Ed), FWACS(Hon) Samuel A. Adebonojo, MD, FCCP, FWACS Lives of great men all remind us, We can make our lives sublime; And departing leave behind us, Footprints on the sand of time A Psalm of Life Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The death of Dr Claude H. Organ, Jr, has left a gigantic footprint on the sand of the surgical world that is too big for many of us to step into. He was a distinguished and renowned African American surgeon who was well known and respected for his hu- manitarian work all over the world. Dr Organ first came into the West African surgical arena early in 2001 when he was nominated for an hon- orary fellowship of the West Afri- can College of Surgeons (WACS). Prior to that, Dr Organ had been working on building the “bridge of international collegiality” between surgeons in West Africa and our sis- ter colleges in the United States, es- pecially with the Society of Black Academic Surgeons and the Ameri- can College of Surgeons. On January 28, 2003, the WACS conferred Dr Claude Organ with an honorary fellowship during its 43rd Annual Scientific Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, in recognition of his love for Africa, his basic character, and his academic and professional contributions to the development of the science and art of surgery in black Africa. Fellows and members of the governing council of the WACS were also cognizant of his contributions to medical education and certification; his love for the West African surgical personality; and his commitment to merit, eq- uity, and justice. It was heartwarm- ing to fellows of the WACS to see that Dr Organ came to Nigeria to ac- cept the award in person and to de- liver a lecture on the myths sur- rounding the death of Dr Charles Drew. Dr Organ was a loyal and de- voted friend of his students, resi- dents, and colleagues. He was an extremely pleasant person who Prof E. Goudote, Republic of Benin; Prof Osato Giwa-Osagie, Pres, West African College of Surgeons; Dr Samuel A. Adebonojo; and Dr Claude H. Organ. Author Affiliations: Department of Surgery, Wright State University School of Medicine, Dayton, Ohio; and Chief, Surgical Service, Dayton VA Medical Center, Dayton. (REPRINTED) ARCH SURG/ VOL 140, NOV 2005 WWW.ARCHSURG.COM 1038 ©2005 American Medical Association. 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