An edited tribute by Dr Madan Rambarran at Dr `Bud’ Lee’s funeral
In 1978, upon graduation, I returned to Guyana and did my one-year internship at the Georgetown Hospital. My first rotation was in paediatrics with Dr. Walter Chin and my last was with Mr. Wallace Irving Lee in surgery. From then surgery became my professional life’s path as it was Mr. Lee’s. I believe his quiet noise-free discipline, his absolute mastery of his craft, his integrity and his matter-of-fact compassion contributed in no small measure to my choosing a life in surgery. On many occasions he told me I can call him Bud but I was his apprentice and he my teacher and for me he was Mr. Lee.
He was a man of few words; he had no time for long unwieldy argumentation. He made his case and set his standards by action. And when he spoke it was without frills and direct to the problem. I remember serving on a commission of enquiry with him and on occasions the other members, myself included, would go off on interminable discussion of some point or the other and after a little while Mr. Lee would ask a question or make a statement that would bring us all back to the substantive issue.