Brilliance twice recalled

A wonderful tribute to Dr. Julius B. Richmond, a former surgeon general, doctor and professor who died this past summer. Millions of Americans are better off because of him. Please read this whole article. DP

By Kevin Cullen, Globe Columnist

They came to the Harvard Club the other day, to sit beneath the three great chandeliers in the great room off Commonwealth Avenue to remember a great man: Julie Richmond.

Dr. Julius B. Richmond, who died last July, lived 91 years because he had so much to do. And if he had lived another 91, he still wouldn't have had enough time.

All those neighborhood health clinics, in places like Southie, Roxbury, and Dorchester, in places like Mound Bayou, Miss., the ones that help people who don't have any money, they exist because of Julie Richmond.

The 25 million poor kids who got their bodies and minds fed over the last 40 years through something called Head Start did so because of Julie Richmond.

He was more than this nation's surgeon general, more than a gentle doctor, more than a fierce intellect, more than a distinguished professor. He was a mensch, and countless Americans are better off because of him.

Julie Richmond's greatest legacy sat beneath the chandeliers in Harvard Hall: his protégés, dozens of them, some of the world's great physicians, many of them serving the poor, here and abroad. Judy Palfrey is one of them, and she sat there, a few rows behind Rosalynn Carter, the former first lady.

In a montage of photos at the end of Julie Richmond's memorial service, there was one image showing him in repose on one of the benches outside Harvard Medical School off Longwood Avenue. From that bench, you could hit a golf ball across Huntington Avenue, into the projects where the sort of children who Julie Richmond tried to help, the ones Palfrey still helps, live in conditions that make a lie of the assertion that this is a nation committed to equality. If you turned around, you could hit another golf ball into Judy Palfrey's office at Children's Hospital.
Be sure to read the rest of this story! This is only a small part of it.