Arthur J. Viseltear: A Student's Elegy

Driving back from Professor Viseltear's funeral, a friend presented us with a paradox. By temperment and training that friend was a medical materialist; he believed in what he could see and study-in tissues and cells, molecules and atoms. Within such a world the spiritual seemed to have little foundation, and yet he wasn't ready to believe that with the ceasing of Professor Viseltear's heart his existence had been swept away. Perhaps the victim of a less rigorous logic, I can't avoid believing in Professor Viseltear's immortality. For me he remains vital as both person and symbol. To our class, Arthur Viseltear, the person, was teacher, advisor, critic, supporter, and friend, and in these capacities he poured a tremendous amount of energy into removing obstacles from our paths, broadening our perspectives, educating our minds, refining our thoughts, and warming our hearts. In speaking with my classmates, what stood out in their minds, and in my own as well, was his involvement in our lives. Words like "accessible," "concerned," "available," "interested," and "curious" leaped to their lips. Professor Viseltear had an uncanny ability to remember details of our lives-an ability that bespoke an active interest and concern. As one classmate described it, "he was curious and enthralled with the lives of his students." In fact, sometimes his legendary capacity to remember every student's name was cause for a certain trepidation. Meeting him in the hallway after skipping one of his classes, there was no easy refuge in our usual anonymity. But the drawback of accountability was offset a hundredfold by the luxury of his active interest in our lives and studies. Barely a month before he died, Professor Viseltear asked to read an essay I had been working on. Four days later I received a full-page, single-spaced letter dissecting the essay point by point, providing suggestions for its improvement, pushing me gently on to the next step. This was Arthur Viseltear's commitment-a commitment that lives for all of us as an ideal of what it means to be a teacher. For many of us, what Professor Viseltear stood for is equally alive. Unquestionably , he loved medicine. He rejoiced in its rich traditions and believed in its idealism. But he was not blind to its faults, nor did he allow his students to be. He was troubled by the absence of a cohesive, universal, compassionate health policy. He was wary of commercialization …