Dr. Sam Liu arrived to the United States from his native China at age 14 in 1925. Sam and his brother settled in Portland where he began his education at Shattuck School. His first priority was to learn English. Sam graduated from Portland’s Lincoln High School in 1932, at the height of the depression, and worked a paper route to help make ends meet. One of his teachers at Lincoln helped him obtain a scholarship and he enrolled at Reed College, majoring in biology and chemistry.

It was less expensive for Dr. Liu to live off campus. That, coupled with the fact that biology majors worked long hours in the basement, meant he didn’t have much of a social life during his college years. But he still had his paper route. Dr. Liu wanted to attend medical school but didn’t know how he’d pay for it. The answer came when he and his brother got summer jobs at a fish cannery in Ketchikan, Alaska after his second year at Reed. Dr. Liu returned to Alaska every summer throughout medical school and that paid the bills.

When he graduated from OHSU (then, the University of Oregon Medical School) in 1939, Dr. Liu discovered that the medical school had not arranged an internship for him. He found his own at the Jersey City Medical Center in New Jersey and stayed on for his surgical training. With America’s entry into World War II, Dr. Liu knew he would be drafted like some of his classmates, so he enlisted. He was assigned to the surgical section of the U.S. Army 60th Station Hospital, which was attached to the Air Force’s 42nd Bomber Wing. They landed in Oran, Algeria, and were deployed to Tunis where they established a hospital at the Northern edge of the Sahara Desert. When asked about his most vivid memory of those days, Dr. Liu stated, “Boy, was it hot there!”

His unit stayed in the Mediterranean theater for two and a half years. After the surrender of Germany, his unit was ordered to the Philippines via the Panama Canal for the invasion of Japan. Dr. Liu and the members of the hospital unit were extremely disappointed at not being allowed to go home. With the surrender of Japan shortly after their arrival in the Orient, they re-boarded the ship and returned through the Canal, sailing at long last into Boston Harbor. “Well,” said Dr. Liu, “you can imagine what a welcome sight that was, to see Boston after such a long journey.”

Dr. Liu returned to Portland after his discharge where he and his wife Betty raised and educated four children. In 1987, Dr. Liu retired from his successful private surgical practice in Portland and moved to Tiburon, Calif. with his wife where they enjoyed traveling, bird watching and reading. Dr. Liu passed away in 2005 at the age of 93 years.

Always a generous supporter of the OHSU School of Medicine, Dr. Liu was a member of the 1887 Society and funded the Sam Liu endowed lectureship in the Department of Surgery in 2001. “I always valued education,” Dr. Liu commented, “and I wanted to give students and doctors another opportunity to learn.”

Monday, March 18, 2019 | 7:30 - 8:30 a.m. | OHSU Auditorium

"Presentation title TBD"

David P. Jaques, M.D., F.A.C.S.

Vice President of Surgical Services
Barnes-Jewish Hospital
St. Louis, Missouri

David Jaques, M.D., has served as the Vice President of Surgical Services of Barnes-Jewish Hospital since August 2006. Dr. Jaques is a skilled surgical oncologist and surgery department administrator. He served as a combat surgeon in the Persian Gulf War and as chief of surgery at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as an oncologist. He served as the senior medical officer during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Dr. Jaques was in the U.S. Army Medical Corps include the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal. He was a colonel since 1998. He served as the vice chairman of the department of surgery and director of graduate education at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He serves as a Director of Mid-America Transplant. Dr. Jaques received his medical degree at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, which was followed by a distinguished career in the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

2018 | David W. Mercer, M.D., F.A.C.S., University of Nebraska Medical Center | "Attributes of a Surgical Leader"

2017 | Samuel R.G. Finlayson, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.S., University of Utah School of Medicine | "Surgery and the Triple Aim"

2016 | Richard D. Schulick, M.D., M.B.A., F.A.C.S., University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus  | "Pancreatic cancer and surgery: What's new"

2015 | Selwyn M. Vickers, M.D., University of Alabama | "Update on pancreatic cancer translational research UAB/MINN pancreatic SPORE"

2014 | Han-Kwang Yang, M.D., M.S., Ph.D., Seoul National University College of Medicine | "Redefining gastric cancer surgery: Open, laparoscopic vs. robotic"

2013 | Mark A. Talamini, M.D., Stony Brook School of Medicine | "Future of surgery"

2012 | Mark A. Malangoni, M.D., F.A.C.S., Associate Executive Director, American Board of Surgery | "The path of surgical education: What direction will we take?"

2011 | Stephen F. Lowry, M.D., M.B.A., UMDNJ-RWJ Medical School | "Allostasis on my mind: New concepts in the assessment of inflammatory risk"

2010 | Michael J. Zinner, M.D., Harvard Medical School | "Evolution of Healthcare in America: Where did we come from and where are we going?"

2009 | Tom R. DeMeester, M.D., University of Southern California School of Medicine | "The evolution of esophagectomy"

2008 | John L. Cameron, M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine | "John Shaw Billings: An unsung hero in American surgery"

2007 | Alden H. Harken, M.D., University of California, San Francisco | "Anyone can treat cardiac arrhythmias"

2006 | Carlos A. Pellegrini, M.D., University of Washington School of Medicine | "Immigration and surgery in America: Lessons about life and the pursuit of happiness"

2005 | C. Wright Pinson, M.D., M.B.A., Vanderbilt University School of Medicine | "History of transplantation"

2004 | John Wong, M.D., University of Hong Kong | "Challenges in managing esophageal cancer: Lessons learned from 2,400 patients"

2003 | Heidi Nelson, M.D. Mayo Clinic | "Rectal cancer: Current management strategies and sorting through the options"

2002 | Thomas J. Fogarty, M.D., Stanford Medical School | "Progress in the treatment of peripheral vascular disease"

2001 | Ira M. Rutkow, M.D., M.P.H., Ph.D., The Hernia Center | "Hernia surgery in the new millennium"