Outstanding academic, scientist and researcher

Excerpts from an eulogy at the funeral service

Ibid farewell to Prof. Stanley Dissanaike, as a person who many years later succeeded him in his professional field of expertise -parasitology and tropical medicine, in which he excelled. I speak on behalf of many colleagues whom he taught and mentored. My husband and I also had the privilege of a close personal relationship with Professor Dissanaike over many years. His life gives cause for celebration because it was a life of high achievement and great service; a life lived well and with honour.

Prof. Stanley Dissanaike was an outstanding academic and an exceptionally good scientist and researcher, his many accomplishments lauded not only in Sri Lanka but the world over. His contribution to science in basic parasite biology, which was the focus of his era, is highly significant. His career, first as Professor of Parasitology, and subsequently the Dean, of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo will be remembered for several seminal developments. In the Department of Parasitology of which he was a founder member, he instilled a culture of research of very high quality, which serves the department and the Faculty to this day. His tenure as Dean saw major reforms in medical undergraduate training.

His young life was studded with great achievements. He was a brilliant student winning prizes, scholarships and fellowships in school – first at Richmond College, Galle, and then at St. Peter’s College Colombo, from where he entered University. He majored in Zoology with the very first, First Class to be awarded on this subject. He then went on to study medicine, graduating from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ceylon with an impressive academic record with several first classes and medals, culminating in a distinction in Medicine. Soon, however, disillusioned with clinical medicine which he thought lacked sufficient scientific approach for his satisfaction, he took up an academic career, first as a lecturer in Pathology at the Medical Faculty in Colombo, and as soon as the Department of Parasitology was established in 1954, moving there to follow his passion to study the biology of human parasites. He was considered the prodigy of his PhD mentor at the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the late Professor P.C. C. Garnham whose book on malaria parasites remains a classic to this day.

After Stanley Dissanaike returned in 1952 to his academic position in Ceylon as a post-doctoral medical scientist, he spent many years extensively researching human parasites and parasitic diseases in this country. This work led to a mass of original scientific knowledge, and a large body of published literature on parasite biology and parasitic diseases in Sri Lanka. Two parasitic organisms named after him stands as testimony to the honored position he held in the world of parasitology. This work also earned him the rare and prestigious degree of Doctor of Science from the University of London.

Merely recalling his extensive professional and academic achievements and his contributions to medical science will not do justice to the great human being that he was. By his nature and conduct he was exemplary – despite his accomplishments he remained humble, and unassuming. By his soft spoken, polite and gentle manner he endeared himself to all. He was also, however, highly principled – he never relented on what he considered to be right or wrong, and was firm in his opinion. Several were the occasions when I was privy to these attributes. It took me many months of arduous persuasion to convince him to accept the Emeritus Professorship from the University of Colombo because he felt he was wronged by the University many years ago for not granting him leave during his tenure to accept a short assignment abroad – an issue which he spoke of openly. It led him to resolutely resign his post as Professor of Parasitology in 1972, and take up the Chair on this subject in the University of Malaya.

Recognised for his original scientific contributions and as an international expert in parasitology, he was in 1978 chosen for a position in the World Health Organisation’s Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (WHO, TDR), in Geneva. After retirement from TDR, WHO he returned to Sri Lanka and continued to serve as a member of the WHO Expert Committee on General Parasitology.

Prof. Dissanaike was passionate about his work, but also meticulous and rigorous in his scientific approach, which made him the excellent researcher and eminent biologist that he was. By nature he was kind and considerate, and an extremely good mentor, never losing an opportunity to guide and advise young academics - several generations of Parasitologists after him had the privilege of his guidance. His integrity and honesty were unsurpassed.It is the combination of these admirable qualities and the scientist in him that made my husband and I reflect from time to time on his exemplary personality, which we’ve always held as the “gold standard” in our professional and academic lives.

He had a delightful sense of humour, which he retained till the very end of his life. During his brief terminal illness, when I visited him at home just before he entered hospital he complained of an intense generalized itching, but after a few days in hospital he made good recovery. When I then asked him how he was, he said, “I miss the itching..” drawing loud laughter from his hospital room. He was fiercely independent in thought and in action, and he set for himself, and kept to enormously high standards, never pursuing fanfare or wealth, and leading a simple but honorable life.

Until the very end he was remarkably alert and bright mentally, never failing an opportunity to respond with satire and humour to almost anything that was said. Just two days before he passed away, I told him, with the naïve intention of cheering him up, that when he is well again we would take him to the salubrious climbs of Diyatalawa, but almost before I could finish the sentence he said, stoically, and laughingly “I’ve been there long before you were born…” putting me, I thought, squarely in my place.He followed my professional career closely with a degree of interest that only a caring mentor would do, and I like to believe that he approved of it.

Personally, I have been hugely inspired by Prof. Dissanaike’s life and work, and I’ve tried, like, I believe, many others have, to emulate him in both his highly rigorous standards of scientific enquiry, and his admirable qualities – there could be no greater tribute that we his disciples could pay to this revered teacher and great medical scientist.

He was a warm family person who adored his late wife and children, who led a beautiful life with dignity and honour, and performed with quiet poise a great service of the highest standards to the country and the world. These admirable attributes and qualities will be his lasting legacy to his children, and us all.