A few days ago, I had the extreme good fortune to be honoured by the Bill and Marilyn Webber Lifetime Achievement Award from the UBC Faculty of Medicine. The evening reception, which is annual, is a venue where the Faculty can recognize a wide range of achievements, so it is always a joyful and up-tempo event. I have reflected on the immense honour that the Faculty had chosen to bestow on me, on the amazing leaders who had received the Award in previous years and the Webber family. I am so thankful to Marilyn and Bill Webber and family for creating this recognition. Bill Webber was a person of great character, a gentleman scholar, a learner, teacher and mentor…..a selfless leader and problem-solver. He helped many people to be better in their lives. He helped Janet and me a great deal when we came to UBC in 1993, when, post-deanship, he was serving as Associate V-P Academic and as Coordinator of the Health Sciences at UBC. He was a role model to many people….a person we wish to emulate. Thank you to the Webbers for this honour, as it gives one pause, a time to reflect.
So, for my part, I know I have been…..
Lucky – very fortunate to have fine parents, without high school educations themselves, who believed in education for all 6 six children, and for so many colleagues and friends along a creative path, which includes nearly 25 years at UBC…..that I hope is not over soon.
We, my colleagues and I, have very simply been Learning – listening and looking for clues to how health and disease progress, how they change, how we might change them.
We were often Linking knowledge and tools from different venues, disciplines and perspectives to make a little progress in finding solutions.
We often needed to do a lot of Leaning on the agility and energy of youthful trainees, staff and family. Without trainees, science and medicine would be deserts without spring.
Sometimes, one would do the heavy Lifting, while at other times colleagues would shoulder the load of pushing boundaries of knowledge, learning new techniques, or evolving our context.
The key thing was and still is that what we do is a great privilege in science and medicine, and our lives are largely filled with activities that we are Loving. We simply love it! The idea of helping people through the power of science is pretty magnetic.
And, importantly, we have always found time every day, for Laughing out loud. It is a joyful journey to be on, for sure.
Last but certainly not Least, none of what I do has meaning without the Love and extreme tolerance of my closest species in a Lineage, my family, and my dear wife Janet. Two of my three children, Amity and Cate, were at the awards reception. That made an old warrior very, very happy. Thanks so much.