Upholding the Legacy: Trio president urges members to make lasting contributions

Dr. Lucente also touched on the idea of nobility in the society, an idea mentioned in founder Dr. Myles’ 1901 address. “He said, ‘There is no sufficient reason that the specialists of today should not be like the old practitioner whose heart was generous, whose ways were gentle, who to a sound knowledge added a wide range of sympathies and liberality of thought and feeling—and who above all was deeply impressed by the ennobling responsibility of this profession,’” Dr. Lucente told the audience.

But nobility comes with responsibilities, Dr. Lucente said. “Should we all be expected to further knowledge?” he said. “Should we all be expected to reach out to those less fortunate and offer them our skills? Should we not also reach out to colleagues who are having difficulties and need our help?”

Dr. Lucente said it was natural for society members to wonder what their legacies will be. “Will it be something tangible, perhaps a building, a monument, a scholarship, an endowed chair?” he said. “Might our legacy be a procedure we have created or an instrument that we have designed? Will it be grand? Will it be anything? The worst legacy would be none at all.”

He reminded the audience of the “amazing confluence” of two people who together have formed quite a legacy. The first example was one-time grocery clerk Johns Hopkins, who went on to leave 7 million dollars—hundreds of millions in today’s money—for the creation of a research university. The second was Henrietta Lacks, a gynecology patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital whose cultured cancer cells, now known as “HeLa cells,” have given rise to the polio vaccine and advances in in vitro fertilization, cloning and gene mapping.

Dr. Lucente said the application of knowledge is more important than the information itself. “[In 1914,] Sir Francis Darwin said, ‘In science, the credit goes to the man who convinces the world, not the man to whom the idea first occurs. Not the man who finds a grain…but to him who sows it, reaps it, grinds it and feeds the world upon it,’” Dr. Lucente told the crowd. “It is my fervent hope that the legacy of this society and each one of us will indeed feed the world forever.”

Take-Home Points

Jonas Johnson, MD, professor and chair of the department of otolaryngology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said Dr. Lucente wants society members to learn from the past. “I think Dr. Lucente is challenging us, he’s challenging us to remember the fact that as physicians we have a special place in society, and if that’s true, then maybe we have an obligation,” he said. “And there’s days and times when I think people forget that. Everybody is feeling challenged by the economy. Everybody has other challenges in their life.”