[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 139 (Wednesday, December 8, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S12056]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       HONORING WALTER THAYER, JR., MD, OF RHODE ISLAND HOSPITAL

 Mr. CHAFEE. Mr. President, I want to take this opportunity to 
recognize the retirement of an extraordinary Rhode Islander, Dr. Walter 
Thayer.
  Walter Thayer was born in East Providence in 1929--back when there 
were farms in what is now an urban area. He graduated from Providence 
College and left for Tufts University Medical School in 1950. He 
returned to Rhode Island in 1965 to become the first Director of the 
Gastroentorology Division of Brown Medical School and Rhode Island 
Hospital after having worked at the National Institutes of Health, 
Georgetown, and Yale University School of Medicine.
  Dr. Thayer's professional qualifications are outstanding. He served 
for 30 years as the Chief of Gastroenterology at Brown University and 
affiliated hospitals, and has been a professor at Brown since 1972; he 
was the Head of Gastroenterology at Rhode Island Hospital from 1965 to 
1994 and continued as a practicing physician until this year. He has 
been presented with the Distinguished Clinician Award by the American 
Gastroenterology Association, the Humanitarian of the Year Award by 
both the Rhode Island and New England Chapters of the Crohns Colitis 
Foundation of America, and the W.W. Keene Award for Contribution to 
Brown Medical School. Walter has presented at the Quadrennial Lecture 
on Crohns Disease at the Third World Congress in Copenhagen, and served 
as the chairman of the NIH-NFIC Sponsored Symposium on Infectious 
Agents in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases and as the Governor for Rhode 
Island to the American College of Gastroenterology.
  One of the great ironies is that Walter, who became such a fixture at 
Brown Medical School and trained and mentored so many fine physicians 
there, so desired to attend Brown University and was not admitted. 
Indeed, his experience in the world outside of Brown and the Ivy League 
was one of the factors that made him such a valuable bridge between 
town and gown between patient care and academic research.
  This bridging between patient care and academic research is a key 
facet of Dr. Thayer's career. His true caring and empathy for his 
patients informed his extensive research. That research, where Walter 
sought to understand the causes of Crohn's disease and ulcerative 
colitis, and find effective treatments to these and other debilitating 
gastrointenstinal illnesses, has been remarkable and extensive, and has 
garnered Walter national and international renown.
  To honor Dr. Thayer's service to the health and academic communities 
in Rhode Island, many of those whom Walter has affected, including 
mentors, colleagues, students and patients, gathered on October 7 to 
wish him well in his life in retirement, and to thank him for his 
service, dedication, caring, and friendship. At that time, one 
colleague said that Walter had earned the highest respect a doctor 
could earn--his colleagues would refer their family members to him. He 
was described as the father of gastroenterology in Rhode Island, 
someone who is a masterful teacher and had great love for his patients. 
Dr. Jose Behar said that Walter's patients trusted him so completely 
that when Dr. Behar would treat one of them, perhaps when Walter was on 
vacation, they would invariably ask him ``Do you think Dr. Thayer would 
agree with you?'' Dr. Behar said that as an accomplished doctor having 
his treatments questioned so bluntly was a little off-putting, but he 
came to realize that it did not stem from a lack of confidence in him 
as much as the patients remarkable level of trust, respect and belief 
in Walter.
  To only speak of his professional life, however, is to miss a great 
deal about Walter. He is someone who is constantly curious, as is 
demonstrated by the fact that even now, well beyond the age of 70, he 
finds himself back in school pursuing an associate's degree in 
wildflower ecology. He has a great love of books, and is often found in 
his favorite chair, his glasses perched on his nose, a great book open 
in his hands. He is extremely active--he has run triathlons, marathons, 
and he spends many winter hours cross-country skiing. And he is a 
loving husband, father, and friend.
  He sincerely cares about issues far from the realm of medicine, 
important social issues, and tries to address them in a real and 
admirable fashion. For example, as his children were growing up, he did 
not want them to only have knowledge of the city, so one summer he took 
his kids to an Amish farm and they all worked on that farm. He did not 
want his children to grow up isolated from questions of race, and made 
many efforts to bring them into close contact with families and 
children of different races and ethnicities.
  Now, even though Dr. Thayer is officially retired, he continues his 
long volunteer service at the Veterans Affairs hospital and in his 
teaching at Brown University. He is looking forward to the opening of 
the new infectious bowel disease research laboratory that will open at 
Rhode Island Hospital--which will be named ``The Walter R. Thayer 
Inflammatory Bowel Disease Laboratory.'' What a fitting honor that this 
new, state-of-the-art research laboratory will be named for him.
  Walter leaves behind a remarkable legacy. I know my colleagues join 
me in saluting him on his well-deserved retirement.

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