JACKSON - Who was Bob Currier?
Brilliant student. Brave Air Force combat gunner. Husband of 51 years. Loving father, doting grandfather.
Doctor. Scientist. Researcher. Legendary medical school professor. Scholarly author and editor. Neurological disease pioneer.
Compassionate friend. Servant of mankind. All in all, a simply beautiful mind fueled by a kind and gentle heart.
All those words describe Bob, but fail to do him justice - for what he was at his very core was a man who dispensed hope to the hopeless, calm to the frightened and salve to souls injured and torn.
The nearly half-page formal obituary could scarcely contain the life of the man whose story it told - Dr. Robert David Currier of Jackson, who died last week at age 78 of complications from cancer.
His scholarly accomplishments make him a great man, but it was his selflessness that made him a truly good man.
For the record - and for Dr. Currier what a distinguished record it was - he led the University of Mississippi Medical Center's division and later Department of Neurology for some 33 years.
How brilliant was Bob Currier? He was published in more than 150 professional journals and was recognized as an international expert on neurogenetic diseases including ataxia, multiple sclerosis, ALS and strokes.
Let's put it this way. Dr. Dan Jones, who will soon succeed Dr. Wally Conerly as the head of UMC, is one of Currier's former students who called him "a master teacher."
Or let's put it another way. This esteemed medical educator, this international expert delivered heartbreaking, life-changing diagnoses to patients across Mississippi with the patience, attention and compassion of a country doctor who felt empathy, not sympathy.
And when the diagnosis had been made, Bob Currier tossed his patients the lifelines of his incomparable mind, his unflagging optimism and his dependable good humor and bade them to have hope and hold on tight.
Thousands of them did just that. My wife, Paula - whose 20-year odyssey with multiple sclerosis continues today with the constant help and friendship of Jackson neuro-oncologist Dr. Ruth Fredericks - had the monumental good fortune to be one of Dr. Currier's patients. She loved him immediately.
Like a chess player, Bob managed Paula's illness through the nine months of her greatest triumph over MS - a dangerous pregnancy which culminated in the birth of our daughter, Kate, now 17 and the center of our world.
We were far from the only Mississippi family Dr. Currier blessed.
He dispensed cutting-edge drugs and treatment regimens for neurological diseases to rural Mississippi patients - rich and poor, black and white, young and old - in equal measure with his strong doses of humanity and wit. Dr. Currier's friendship was visible and demonstrative - as were his smiles and hugs.
He was Paula's doctor, to be sure, but Dr. Currier was her devoted friend as well. When he was diagnosed with cancer several years back, he led Paula to Dr. Fredericks, telling her with his trademark smile: "Ruth's probably smarter than I am and she's doing some marvelous things for her patients. She'll take care of you now."
There were tears that day - from doctor and patient alike, as they parted.
In death, Dr. Currier's remains will repose on his beloved Bois Blanc Island in Michigan. And like the old Henry Fonda film, may Bob's ponds be forever golden.
