The Making of a Surgical Leader

Article Outline

• American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, Tampa, May 2009
• Near Waco, Texas, 1930s, the Great Depression
• London, England, 1962, the Royal College of Surgeons First International Conference on Oral Surgery
• Copyright

Back to Article Outline

American College of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, Tampa, May 2009 

R.V. Walker stood there humble as always, bigger and more athletic than an octogenarian should be. Now stoop-shouldered, his right shoulder a bit dropped as if to address a golf ball, he greeted his former residents and friends with his “high-octane Texas gasoline twang.”^⁎ The circle surrounding him was impressive. Ray Fonseca, Doug Sinn, Tim Turvey, Bruce Epker, Ghali Ghali, Cesar Guerrero, and younger surgeons yet to make their mark, stood by like disciples. As he sat down with his wife, Emily, his shock of dense wiry gray hair seemed to bristle. Bruce Epker stepped to the podium to describe his mentor.

Back to Article Outline

Near Waco, Texas, 1930s, the Great Depression 

After his predawn chores with his dad's cows and mules, he threw a tennis ball against the house as hard as he could and fielded the rebound, over and over again, month after month, until nothing could get by him. “It takes ten thousand hours of work to get good at anything,” he would later recount. He developed the self-confidence only experience can provide: “I'm here to play shortstop,” he would later tell the manager at Texas A & M (and yet later in the Chicago Cubs farm system). “We have a boy with a scholarship to play shortstop. You are a walk-on,” said the manager. R.V.'s retort, “He can back me up in left field. I'm here to play shortstop.”

He must have spoken then as he does now, critical and to the point, terse, not judgmental, and not a hint of the anxious meanness or guile so common in today's surgical discourse. He would later use that honesty and self-confidence built by the dogged pursuit of excellence to help invent the specialty as it exists today at Parkland Hospital and across the world.

Back to Article Outline

London, England, 1962, the Royal College of Surgeons First International Conference on Oral Surgery 

Guildhall was filled with formality, dark wood, and academic regalia, as Fred Henny rose to eloquently toast the young specialty. Attendees from 32 nations met to determine that the specialty had worth, that it would last, and that it would grow. As R.V. recounted, “When Dr Henny spoke, and surrounded by elegance and the historical significance of Guildhall and the Royal College of Surgeons of England, all I could think was, by golly, we belong!”

Today, R.V. looks to the future by understanding the past. In his 2009 Tampa talk, “Early key happenings of a growing specialty,” he describes how these events intertwined to create contemporary oral and maxillofacial surgery. He believes these elements were put into place following the International Conference and they flourished in the midcentury years:

While these achievements are one way to look at our specialty's progress, another is to examine the personal characteristics of its leaders, since only with surgeons of R.V.'s caliber will future gains be made. This is what can be learned about R.V. from listening to him and Bruce Epker's presentation in Tampa.

And that only unwavering effort can achieve excellence: as R.V. put it, “I was always a better fielder than I was a hitter.”

• ⁎ As described by Tim Turvey.