Gala Notes

2008 Gala Address for Dr. James Vernon 

First, the Medical Staff of Newton-Wellesley Hospital would like to thank each and every one of you for attending the gala this evening and for your generous support of the Joan and James Vernon Cancer Center which will enable us to provide convenient and comprehensive cancer care to our ever expanding community of patients. We would also like to thank Joan Archer and the Gala Committee who have worked hard all year to make this evening a success.

On a more personal note, I would like to say a few words about Dr. James Vernon who has been on the medical staff of Newton-Wellesley Hospital for 40 years. He is a full Clinical Professor of Surgery at Tufts University School of Medicine and a Clinical Instructor at Harvard Medical School. He has won many teaching awards including the Locke Award for Excellence in Medicine. He has served as the Medical Staff President and as a Hospital Trustee and Overseer. Jim has also served on the Cancer Commission of the American College of Surgeons. Jim has done just about everything a physician can do at a hospital and has done it well.

I have operated with Jim on many breast cancer patients, those women requiring a mastectomy followed by an immediate or delayed breast reconstruction and have admired his kindness and the thoughtful care he delivers to all his patients and their families. Jim was instrumental in helping to bring sentinel lymph node biopsy technology to Newton-Wellesley, an important staging procedure for melanoma and breast cancer, and well ahead of many community hospitals.

Jim has been a mentor for many of us over the years both clinically and politically, and has been a role model for physicians in training and the all the physicians on our medical staff.  Everyone who knows Jim knows he is a skilled surgeon, a consummate clinician and the quintessential gentleman.

We can think of no more fitting name for the new center then the Joan and James Vernon Cancer Center. Jim, the Medical Staff of Newton-Wellesley Hospital salutes you and thanks you.  

Martin B. Weiss, MD, FACS
President of the Medical Staff
Newton-Wellesley Hospital