“It’s Not the Destination, It’s the Journey”: 2011 Society of Surgical Oncology Presidential Address

Excerpt

I want to thank Jim Economou for his kind and wonderful introduction. Jim and I come from vastly different, one might say diametrically opposite, backgrounds. Jim is an impressive intellectual; I am not. Jim is an outstanding, funded scientist–investigator; I am not. Jim comes from a surgical pedigree, the product of a surgeon leader, a former chief of surgery at Rush University Medical Center; I do not. Jim studies ancient cultures and languages such as Akkadin, Sumerian, and Ugaritic. I struggle with English. When you hear Jim speak, it is a mix of William F. Buckley, George Will, and Richard Dawkins. When I speak, you hear a mix of Yogi Berra, Ralph Kramden, and Jerry Seinfeld. Suffice it to say we are different. But the one thing we share, the one common thread, is an unbridled passion for and unwavering commitment to the SSO—to its mission and its values, what it has been, what it is today, and what it will be in the future. …