InternationalA doctor's doctor to be honored by Fund for Armenian Relief
Published: Thursday November 12, 2009
Dr. Edgar Hovsepian and Archbishop Torkom Manoogian in Armenia 1989. Private archive of Dr. Hovsepian
Dr. Edgar Hovsepian at Columbia Presbyterian. Julie Dermansky
New York - A modest, unassuming, laid back, and extraordinarily gifted and giving individual is Dr. Edgar M. Housepian, a renowned neurosurgeon and professor. These praiseworthy personal traits belie a medical professional whose awards and honors crowd many pages. Visiting him at the Presbyterian Hospital, where so many of his accomplishments have been performed, I found him in a small office, lined with paintings of Armenia, happily continuing his research even though he has been in retirement for 11 years.
On January 15, 2010, Dr. Housepian will be honored at a gala banquet sponsored by the Fund for Armenian Relief (FAR), for his vast contributions to medicine and his work with relief and medical efforts in Armenia. The event will take place at New York's Cipriani, downtown.
During an exclusive interview with this writer at Presbyterian Hospital, Dr. Housepian revealed that his motivation for going into medicine and especially neurosurgery started with his father, whom he "loved and respected very much. He had graduated from medical school in 1905, but they didn't have specialties in those days. He was a surgeon, delivered babies, and did everything. But after medicine advanced, fields developed, he gave up surgery and obstetrics, and ended his career by being an internist and a general family doctor. It must have been in my mind that medicine was a very fulfilling field."
The young Edgar Housepian got his first job as an orderly in the operating room in New York Hospital at age 14, "when World War II was on, and manpower was hard up. I saw all sorts of operations, even helped out in the autopsy suite. Then I was asked to scrub on a couple of neurosurgical operations. When you're 15 years old, that's pretty awesome. It no doubt at least subconsciously influenced my future career. But I buried that thought, and joined the Navy when I turned 17 because I wanted to fly."
A passion to fly
He called himself "a rotten kid, like most," when he was young. "While in bed with poison ivy I would cut out coupons for all of the flying schools in Flying Magazine. My family was not amused when occasionally representatives would come to the door. When I was 15, I "fudged" my birth certificate and went to Canada to join the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force). When I got there, they laughed and sent me home." He finally joined the Navy V-5 program but left at the end of World War II because he realized that naval aviation was not to be his career and instead completed college and enrolled in medical school.
"Neuroscience is even more interesting, and is burgeoning today because of the advancement in knowledge," he notes. "Since I started medical school in 1949, half of what I learned is now wrong, and the other half I have forgotten. So you have to keep learning. Over the years, the field has become more and more specialized and even sub-specialized. This is better for patients."
Since he retired 11 years ago, at age 70, he has continued fielding a neuroscience review course at Columbia University started 32 years ago. At retirement, the dean of the school "gave me a long title, but no salary. I was miffed at first, but then realized how lucky I am. If the dean had given me a small salary, every time he burped, I would have had to salute," he says chuckling. "This way I'm able to do what I wanted - to be active with students and faculty in their global interests, continuing to develop affiliations with over 20 medical schools around the world, and stay involved with health care in Armenia. It's very fulfilling. I'm not a retiree who plays golf. When you stop active practice, if you're honest with yourself, it's like stepping off the train. You're standing at the station, and the train is 20 miles down the track. I can't teach neurosurgery because it's changed that much."
First among his heroes has been Dr. J. Lawrence Pool whom he calls his "father figure, benefactor, teacher. Everything was special about him. He was national squash champion, sailed across the Atlantic, piloted float planes, had a great sense of humor and had a thousand new ideas every month, a true Renaissance man. He kept you on your toes, and supported you."
The Dr. Edgar Housepian Professorship in Neurological Surgery which was established by the Columbia University Board of Trustees is one of dozens of awards and honors that he has received. Others that he is most proud of include the Presidential Citation from the Republic of Armenia in 1994; Honorary Doctor of Science by Armenia's Academy of Sciences, and Honorary Doctor of Medicine by Yerevan State Medical University in 1997; and the Humanitarian Award by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons in 2002. He has also authored more than 100 articles on medicine.
Dedication to FAR
One of three leaders who created the Fund for Armenian Relief after the devastating 1988 earthquake, under the sponsorship of the Diocese of the Armenian Church, Dr. Housepian followed in the footsteps of his parents who were deeply involved in the Armenian-American community. His father had gone to Armenia in 1916, and his mother had been a member of the AGBU Central Committee for 30 years. "They entertained Armenian clergy and officials from overseas. I was immersed in it, but never involved while my career was developing."
Two years before the earthquake, Archbishop Torkom Manoogian called him and informed him that Catholicos Vasken I was coming to NY, and had a severe back problem. "With his white beard, he always made me think of God and Santa Claus," he remarks with a smile. Dr. Housepian admitted him into the hospital, "but he started getting better and I didn't have to operate on him and was very relieved. I look back on his admission sheet, and it says 'Occupation, Pope'," he says laughing. That was his connection with the church until then and he points out that he and his three children were baptized in New York's Holy Cross Church.
