Medical College of Virginia - X Ray Yearbook (Richmond, VA)

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fhe 193 RESOLUTIONS PRESENTED TO THE RICHMOND ACADEMY OF MEDICINE ON THE DEATH OF G. PAUL LaROQUE It is a difficult task to evaluate the life of a man in a few short sentences or to sum up hi contribu- tion to his fellow man in a page or two of words. And yet this is what your Committee has been asked to do in the sad circumstance in which we, his friends and colleagues, now find ourselves. G. Paul LaRoque was born in Lenoir County, North Carolina, June i6, 1876. He was the son of the late Walter Dunn LaRoque and Annie Parrott LaRoque. His early and premedical education was received in his own State. After leaving the Universi ty of North Carolina he received his medical education and was graduated from the University of Penn- sylvania in 1902. For the next three years he served as intern and resident at the University Hospital. It was here that he first attracted attention by his close and intelligent application to his duties and his aptitude for writing. It is no secret that at this time he helped in the writing of some of our lead- ing text-books on surgery. He came to Richmond in 1905 and was soon after appointed instructor in the practice of surgery in the University College of Medicine, and continuously held ascending positions in the surgical faculty until he became Associate Professor of Surgery. He held the same chair in the Medical College of Virginia after the merger took place, and in 1928 he was made Professor of Clin- ical Surgery, which position he occupied until his death which occurred on A ' ednesday, M ay the ihth, I9U- He was a member of this organization, the Med- ical Society of Virginia, the Southern Medical Asso- ciation, the Tri-State Medical Association, the Southern Surgical Association, and was also a Fel- low of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. LaRoque ivas a prolific writer and contributed ar- ticles on various surgical topics to the leading med- ical and surgical periodicals of the country. He was a clear, forceful writer and covered many important fields of work. His contributions to the surgery of the blood vessels and his original operation for her- nia stand almost as classics. The great object of his life was teaching. It was his work and his play, his hobby, his pastime and his recreation. To teach, to leach well, and to be al- lowed the privilege of teaching was the goal of life to him. Perhaps the two years when he was Acting Professor of Surgery were the happiest period of his life. Surroundecl by a little group of residents and interns he could be found almost any hour of day or night hurrying from ward to ward always impart- ing some lesson, at times caustically, again whim- sically, at times with great gentleness, but always with the dominant object ahead, to drive some mes- sage home. There was no length to which he would not go, no pains he would not take, whether for an Individual, a group, or a class, if only he could leave a lasting imprint of some important fact. Unlike so many of his felln v North Carolinians he was in no way aii orator. He was, however, a flu- ent speaker depending on logic and accumulated facts rather than upon figures of speech. While not an orator he was no mean debater as many an un- wary antagonist has found out to his discomfiture. He was humorous, quick at repartee, sharp and sud- den in reply. It might be said of him as was said of a similar unique character of simple trusting ex- terior, Surely this simple fellow carrieth a thorn beneath his tongue. In the past forty years no teacher of medicine in this part of the country could fairly be called his peer. Should one doubt this statement let him ask any one of a thousand students who have passed under his tutelage. In April, 1915, he was married to Miss Eva Page Murdock of this city. To them no children were born, but to him the children of other members of his family were a continuous source of pleasure and diversion. The little children of the wards were his special delight and for them he would perform any service. His kindness to the poor of his wards was one of his outstanding characteristics. He was an individ- ual of few wants and simple habits. To him money meant little. After serving two years as Acting Professor of Surgery to the College and its hospitals, though his own private practice suffered severely by reason of his increased duties, he declined a sub- stantial sum vhich the College voted him. When it was presented to him again, he again declined, stat- ing that if he had to accept it he would promptly donate it to the hospital where it was greatly needed to care for more patients in its wards. Money was simply not his medium of exchange. He gave his time, his talents, his labors, and himself to his work and received for them gratitude, loyalty and af- fection. These he bartered for happiness and re- ceived full measure in return. No summary of his life would be complete with- out a tribute to his high personal courage and self- control. He was as honest professionally as per- sonally and was quick to admit an error of judg- ment or of execution. In critical periods of his pro- fessional career, when he has stood with his back to the wall, he has never faltered. No one could have told by the quiver of a muscle or one single modula- tion of his voice that anything unusual was hap- pening, though those closest to him knew full well that the heated iron was in his soul. He died as he would have wished to die in full possession of all his splendid faculties, in the full tide of his usefulness, borne to his last resting place by the men in white with whom he had labored just as he would have had it. This epitaph upon a simple slab would doubtless be more pleasing to him than any other: G. P.AUL L.aRoque Teacher of Surgery Born June 16, 1876 Died May 16, 1934 Respectfully 1934: submitted this 22nd day of May W. Lowndes Peple, Chairman, Stuart McGuire, J.AMES K. Hall.

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DR. G. PAUL LaROQUE 1876-1934 IN MEMORIAM JOHN V. WILLIAMS, Esq., Member of the Board of Visitors of the Medical College of Virginia, Clerk, State House of Delegates. Died November 5, 19 54. VICTOR LAV, Junior in Medical School of the Medical College of Virginia. Died August 6. 19?4. 935 x-rau

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The Old Powder Horn and the Christopher Wrenn Courthouse in Williamsburg. The first attempt to teach medicine in Virginia was made in 1779 at the College of William and Mary. Other medical schools were built early in the 18th century in Winchester, Charlottes- ville, Richmond, and Prince Edward County.