SELF PORTRAIT

■ DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: March 18, 1941, Fort Smith

■ BEST ADVICE I’VE EVER RECEIVED: My grandfather wrote me a letter when I was 9 years old [and said] when you give a public speech, you should always refer to the Bible. That way, maybe people would think you’d actually read it. He had a sense of humor. Also, Joe Bates, who is a public health doctor in town, told me before I went off to Texas to do my surgery … “You need to come back to Arkansas to practice. The state of Arkansas has spent a lot of money on your education. And you owe it to them to come back.”

■ I WISH MY PATIENTS WOULD REALIZE: That health doesn’t come out of a pill bottle and that they are really the ones responsible for their health. And if you don’t take care of yourself, it doesn’t make much difference what the doctor does. The outcome will not be very great. Now there are some people that know that really well, and there are some people that don’t act like they understand that at all. But I’ll see patients in my office day after day that are taking 20 different prescriptions. I don’t even know how their body can function, much less be healthy. So I wish people would take better care of themselves.

■ ADVICE I GIVE MEDICAL STUDENTS: Be real open-minded here and try to see a bigger picture than just a specific drug for a specific ailment because that’ll be changing pretty soon. The new drugs will displace them. Many of the operations I did as a young doctor aren’t even done anymore. Everything changes and you’ve got to be ready to change with it.

■ FANTASY DINNER GUESTS: Dr. Rene Favaloro (of Argentina, the father of coronary surgery); Dr. Denton Cooley, (noted heart surgeon); Dr. George Reed (retired heart surgeon from New York, who taught me how to do technical surgery); Charles X. Williams (my grandfather); Inez Radford (childhood mentor); Dr. Bill Snyder (a lifelong friend and surgeon).

■ MY GUILTY PLEASURE: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I wish I didn’t eat a bunch of sugar, but it’s really hard to stay away from those things — especially if somebody throws one out in front of you. Leslie gave me one for Christmas that weighed a pound.

■ ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP: Servant-leader.