The Pleasure has been all mine...

[Gerry]

This evening I will be attending the wake of my next door neighbor's father.

Dr. Walter Bo has been teaching at Bowman Grey School of Medicine (Wake Forest University) since 1960.

No, he never retired. Even at age 86.

Medicine was his life and passion. More than anything, it was the teaching and passing on a knowledge to others. He taught anatomy and physiology. He devised new ways of teaching and instruction and learning that are adopted throughout the world. He actually created the latitudenal and longitudenal views of 1mm thick cadavers enclosed in glass plates. This basically led to the development of MRI scans and 3-D views of the human body. He was doing it before most computer makers were even born.

Books he authored and co- authored 40 years ago are still used today.

When our families got together (my neighbor's and us) we never talked medicine. He loved to read. He was from Minnesota and Italian descent. We talked about what book he was reading, college sports, and trout fishing. Needless to say he was a huge Wake Forest Demon Deacons fan. How could you not be after teaching there for over 40 years.

Think about it a moment.

How many doctors he taught and instructed over nearly a 49 year career? How many lives did he change and touch and those lives went on to touch your life? How many thousands of people did he create into professionals all over the world that now practice medicine. Then think for a moment how many of those doctors went on to teach medicine being molded in the Dr. Bo way.

The number must be staggering and into the millions the number of lives he affected and touched directly and indirectly. Any one reading this may have been touched by him. Any doctor who ever went to WFU for residency, med school, or clinical practice would have encountered him. A gynecologist, heart surgeon, ER doc, pathologist, and each and every doctor in all specialty.

The next time you are in a doctor's office or in a hospital or just happen to meet a doctor, ask them if they every knew Dr. Bo or went to Wake.

You'd be amazed and I would be amazed.

I will never forget the very first time I walked into his lab. There lay about 50 bodies in various stages of dissection. These were people who willed their body to science. These were people who unselfishly gave of themselves in order that others may benefit.

This was a man who gave unselfishly of himself to help all humanity.

Friend, teacher, husband, father, grandfather.

Dr. Walter Bo.

[jberryhill]

How many lives did he change and touch and those lives went on to touch your life?

If this is like "the seven degrees of Kevin Bacon" then I count two steps, having done patent work for the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at my old firm.

[Gerry]

If this is like "the seven degrees of Kevin Bacon" then I count two steps, having done patent work for the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at my old firm.

See, that is cool. Who knows, it may have been something he developed.

He does hold many patents, of course they are all in the name of Bowman Gray.

49 years of teaching at BGSM. And he taught before that!

And married 60 years.

I like this,

Having a profound impact on these young men and women, Dr. Bo's influence on the medical field has been felt worldwide. Known for his rigorous rounds of questioning that his students dubbed 'Gestapo sessions,' Dr Bo's reputation for tough and fair teaching formed a major part of his legacy.

Just think, Dr. John, you may be forming the same impression on other young men and women.

Goes to show that you never now how your legacy may live on.