What Makes America Great

Are men like Dr. Michael Ellis Debakey.  His life was beyond anything someone could dream up.  His influence in the modern world cannot be measured, but if you could it would be in the thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of lives he has helped save and extend.  He died on Friday July 11 in Houston of natural causes.

He was born in 1908 to Lebanese immigrants Raheehja Debakey and Shaker Morris in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  And as President Bush said at Dr. Debakey’s Congressional Gold Medal Ceremony in April of this year,

“In the year that Michael DeBakey was born, Theodore Roosevelt sat in the White House, Henry Ford produced the first Model T automobile, and the average American’s life expectancy was a little more than 51 years. That last point is worth noting, because the number today is nearly 78 years. Our lifetimes have been extended by more than 50 percent within the course of a century, and the man we’re honoring today is part of the reason why.”

I had the privlege to watch that ceremony and at the time I had never heard of Dr. Debakey, but I watched the House and Senate leaders along with President Bush roll off the impressive and noble resume of this Doctor.  They spoke of his impressive accomplishments and his humble beginnings.  Two very good and amazing stories.

Every Sunday, as the Speaker noted, Michael’s parents and siblings would load the family car with clothes and food for children who lived in an orphanage on the outskirts of town. One weekend, the donations included one of his favorite ball caps. When Michael complained, his mother simply told him, “You have a lot of caps. Those children have none.” It was a lesson that he never forgot.

And

The other gift that Dr. DeBakey’s parents gave him was a love of learning. In fact, young Michael’s mother and father required their children to check a book out of the library every week. One week, Michael returned home frustrated and he told his father that he had found a fascinating book, but that the librarians refused to lend it to him. The book was actually part of a series — called the Encyclopedia Britannica. (Laughter.) And when his father bought the set for him, Michael read every word of every article in every volume.

As I watched the Doctor sit patiently in his wheelchair, 99 years old, I wondered what state he was in.  Would he be able to talk?  What was he physically able to do?  When they gave him the mic I figured out why those stories were amazing.  Apparently at 99 years old it becomes hard to hear, because he repeated those exact same stories.  Those were the lessons he had actually learned as a child, lessons that had stuck with him for 99 years.

And it brought home the poignant illustration that two immigrant parents who raised their children with two tangible principals have affected so many lives for the positive.  You just have to read any article that covers his life to find evidence these are the principals he lived by – learning; and loving others.  This article runs down his extraordinary life and is worth the read.