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Dr. Gordon McLorie 33rd recipient of the American Academy of Pediatrics Medal in urology

2018; Elsevier BV; Volume: 14; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jpurol.2018.09.007

1873-4898

Bernard M. Churchill,

Child and Adolescent Health

The American Academy of Pediatrics Medal in Urology represents the highest honor that our section awards and is presented to that individual who has had outstanding career contributions to our specialty. The first recipient was Dr. Harry Spence, University of Texas, and for 31 subsequent years, the medal has been awarded to distinguished individuals who have rendered excellent and compassionate clinical care and have been noteworthy mentors and unique and talented innovators. Gordon received the award posthumously and is the third Canadian recipient of this prestigious honor. It is thus appropriate that this medal was awarded in Canada in the wonderful city of Montréal (See Fig. 1, Fig. 2).Fig. 2Gordon and Blair McLorie.View Large Image Figure ViewerDownload Hi-res image Download (PPT) Gordon was born in St. John New Brunswick on May 2, 1945. His father, David, came to Canada from England during the war and met his beautiful bridge, Jermaine, in New Brunswick. When Gordon was 5 or 6 years old, his family moved to Southern Ontario where his father worked for General Motors in Oshawa for many years. Gordon grew up in Toronto and attended high school at Riverdale Collegiate—just along Gerrard Street from the Hospital for Sick Children. During his school years, Gordon set a lifelong pattern of excellence in academics and athletics. He was an exceptional student and skipped two grades, graduating from high school when he was just 16. Gordon then returned to his ‘Atlantic Canada’ roots choosing to attend St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. St. FX, as St. Francis Xavier is popularly known, is considered by many to the ‘Canada's Premier Undergraduate Experience’. The graduates have a sense of pride, a commitment to hard work, and quiet confidence known as the X factor. Gordon was living personification of the ‘X’ factor. However, at the beginning of his undergraduate career, he was 2 years younger than virtually all his college classmates and a long way from home. His first year was more of a ‘getting adjusted’ period. After that, he excelled academically and graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Cum Laude). He also played Canadian football for the college team who were of course known as the X men. From 1965 until 1969, Gordon attended medical school at the University of Toronto. During that time (in 1966), Gordon met Blair at the Craigleith Ski Club in Collingwood, Ontario. In 1969–70, Gordon did a rotating internship at the Toronto General Hospital which was also conveniently located on Gerrard Street. He then entered the Gallie Surgical Residency Program in urology at the University of Toronto. The program was named after Dr. William Edward Gallie, and the residents have since then referred to themselves as ‘Gallie Slaves’. During that time, Gordon was one of the first residents to have extra training in nephrology and renal transplantation. He was the senior resident in urology at the Toronto General Hospital under Dr. Charles Robson. After this, Gordon obtained an Ontario Ministry of Health Scholarship to do a fellowship in urological uncology at UCLA under Dr. Joseph Kaufman. Gordon gained valuable experience in renal transplantation and renal vascular surgery working with Joe who was a noted authority in these subjects. After leaving California, Gordon was appointed as an asst. professor and transplant surgeon at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, where he stayed for 2 years. However, by this time, Gordon had developed a significant appetite for academic surgery and translational research done at the highest international levels. He thus took a ‘sabbatical’ in private practice at the Scarborough Centenary Hospital in suburban Toronto. Gordon's entrance into the field of pediatric urology was quite unusual to say the least. Most people take a fellowship in pediatric urology and then look for a job. Gordon got a job and then looked for a fellowship. Within 4 years of my appointment as the division head at the Hospital for Sick Children (HSC), two important faculties had left to take leadership positions elsewhere. I was looking for the key appointment on our faculty, and Gordon was looking for an academic position. Gordon asked me to write him a letter of reference to the University of Oregon on the same day that my Chairman of Surgery asked me to compose a job description of our new proposed appointment. It became obvious as my day continued that the letter of recommendation and the job description were a perfect fit for each other. That fortuitous connection was unquestionably one of my major contributions to pediatric urology. Gordon subsequently did a fellowship with Dr. Hardy Hendren at the Massachusetts General Hospital and joined our staff having had fellowship training in pediatric surgery, oncology, and renal transplantation. On joining the Pediatric Urology Division at the HSC, Gordon immediately elevated the level of clinical care, research, and postgraduate teaching to internationally competitive standards. Gordon was a very gifted surgeon from both a technical and a creative perspective. His clinical volume of surgery, the lack of complications, his personal commitment to patients, and his originality were simply outstanding. The residents and fellows who scrubbed with Gordon picked up his elegant, graceful surgical moves almost by osmosis. His life changed abruptly one day while he was on his way home from an early morning renal transplant at the hospital. He fell asleep and his car collided with a bridge. When Tony Khoury and I saw him the next day in the ICU, he had so many fractures that it looked like he was going to create a Canadian Plaster of Paris deficiency all by himself. This was followed by a recovery period during which he was demanding of himself, of his caregivers and, of his family regarding anything and everything that would hasten the rapidity and completeness of his recovery. To quote Blair's observations regarding that interval of time ‘he was unquestionably the world's worst patient’. He of course broke all records in his return to the clinic, to the operating room, and to the tennis court. Gordon was a wonderful teacher and mentor. During his career, he trained 42 Fellows; 21 had careers in academic medicine, 12 became division chiefs, and 3 became Department Chairs. Gordon was a role model for all the residents and fellows not only professionally but also personally. He achieved a marvelous balance between his demanding professional responsibilities and his commitments as a husband, father, and grandfather. Gordon published 207 peer-reviewed articles and 28 book chapters as well as 258 abstracts in his career. Using his dual fellowship training in oncology and pediatric urology, he made significant contributions to the treatment of Wilms’ tumor and other pediatric urological tumors. He was a pioneer in the use of preoperative chemotherapy and partial nephrectomy to preserve renal function particularly in bilateral cases. He also published excellent results on preservation of the lower urinary tract in prostatic rhabdomyosarcoma and also preservation of the testicle in certain testicular tumors. He made outstanding contribution in the field of pediatric renal transplantation notably in those difficulty problem cases with combined irreversible renal failure and major lower urinary tract dysfunction. He also published important studies in urodynamics and the treatment of the neurogenic bladder. He made significant contributions in extravesical surgical correction to vesicoureteral reflux and Hutch diverticula. He had a leading role in the multicenter ‘Randomized Intervention for Children with Vesicoureteral reflux (RIVUR)’ culminating with his last publication in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicines, May 20, 2014. From 1997 until 2001, Gordon played a very active role on executive committees of the Canadian Urological Association (CUA). This culminated in a term as President in 2001. He and Blair hosted a memorable meeting of the CUA at the Banff Springs Hotel. From 2003 to 2006, Gordon was the Chief of Pediatric Urology at the Children's Hospital of Michigan and was also the Bicknell Endowed Chair in Pediatric Urology at Wayne State University. Always in the forefront, Gordon took up and participated in the development of laparoscopic surgical skills in Pediatric Urology. He developed a training model for this important technical paradigm shift in our specialty. Continuing his quest for progress, he moved to Wake Forest University School of Medicine as the Chief of Pediatric Urology at the Brenner Children's Hospital. During his four years in North Carolina, working with Dr. Tony Atala, he had an important role in the creative work of regenerative medicine. In 2012, Gordon and Blair moved to California so that Gordon could rejoin his long-time partner and friend Dr. Tony Khoury at the University of California Irvine. There, Gordon was able to set up their fellowship program and pursue his latest athletic challenge, golf. The characteristic that everyone admired most about Gordon was the sense of joy, commitment to excellence, and the total involvement he brought to life. This was true whether he was chasing a squash ball or performing a renal transplant. In the operating room and in the clinic, he demanded a high level of commitment to making things optimal for each and every patient. He also tried to get the very best level of commitment from the patient's family. As successful as Gordon was in his professional career, he was probably even more successful in his private life. He met Blair while they were at the University of Toronto, and they were married in 1969. We always felt that it was a good thing they were married to each other because either one of them would have exhausted anybody else. Gordon was an exceptional athlete in many different sports. He was probably the best squash player at Sick Kids where that game was played with great intensity by residents and faculty alike. Gordon's top-of-the-ladder position was held until he was displaced by Tony Khoury. Gordon was also an accomplished competitive sailor and a dedicated, committed skier. However, in spite of his skiing excellence, Blair was probably even more proficient. Gordon's primary commitment in life was his family. He and Blair were a team. Their journey through the demanding life of an academic surgeon from beginning to the end was definitely something they did together. They raised a beautiful family of 4 children and laterally 6 grandchildren who collectively were the lights of Gordon's life. Observing Gordon at his cottage on Smoke Lake in Algonquin Park was to see a man who enjoyed himself to the utmost and recharged his batteries so he could continue to give his very best effort to his patients, students, and family. Speaking for Tony Khoury and myself, there is nothing better than having a professional partner who is one of your best friends, whom you look forward to seeing every day, and who constantly challenges you to do better. We miss Gordon very much, but we always have the memories of how much he enriched our lives.