Retired physician Dr Abraham Augustus Clemwood Fung-A-Fat, one of the co-founders of the Woodlands Hospital, died on Wednesday after a brief period of illness.
Fung-A-Fat, known as ‘Billy’ to those who knew him, was 86-years-old.
Fung-A-Fat was a recipient of both Guyana’s Cacique Crown of Honour (C.C.H.) and the Golden Arrow of Achievement for his service to the country and to the medical profession.
Following the news of his passing, Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony hailed Fung-A-Fat’s contributions to this country’s medical fraternity.
“Dr. Billy Fung-A-Fat contributed a lot to the medical fraternity and the development of medicine here in Guyana. His passing is sad because many still learned from his vast wealth of experience,” Anthony told Stabroek News as he extended condolences on behalf of government.
Fung-A Fat’s daughter, Sharon, told this newspaper that her father touched the lives of all those he interacted with in a positive way and everyone would describe him as “a kind, gentle soul”. “He was loved. Everyone loved him. And that is how I will remember him—the kindest soul,” she said.
His longtime friends Henry Jeffrey and Dennis Dias yesterday paid tribute at the Georgetown Club to a man they said was blessed to make a positive impact on everyone he met and that they will forever remember his compassion and love for humanity.
“I will put it like this…if there is a good place to go, I am certain that Billy Fung-A-Fat is there,” Jeffrey said.
He recalled that their decades-old friendship was never affected by their differing views on politics or ideologies, as he pointed out that Fung-A-Fat had one time been a politician. “We used to have loud discussions about politics and when that ended, that was that. He was just a person so full of life and he lived a full life,” he said.
But what is most indelible to Jeffrey is that Fung-A-Fat’s medical intervention and advice saved his life and he said that he was forever indebted to him.
For Dias, the nearly 50 years he had known Fung-A-Fat were described as an absolute joy. “He was the nicest, kindest, happiest doctor that I have ever met. Whatever positive descriptions one can describe of a person, that is what Billy was. I have never seen him vexed with anybody. He [didn’t] have an enemy in this world,” he said.
