| Award | Leibrock Lifetime Achievement Award |
| Name | W. Ben Blackett |
| Year | 2007 |
| Description | Dr. Bloomgarden has asked me to introduce the recipient of the Leibrock Lifetime Achievement Award. He did this because I, as your Historian, chair the Awards Committee which nominated the recipient, that nomination being approved by the CSNS Board. I welcome this assignation because I consider the recipient my friend and a man I have always admired, yea even envied, for his ability to think clearly, speak calmly and with reason and to eat like a horse yet remain slender.
His C.V. reflects the esteem with which he is held in his local community, his State and the country. His C.V. does not tell us his age, his first name, which college he attended or that he has been married to a vibrant, iconoclastic and very unique lady for decades. I think he considers those issues private and/or immaterial and I admire him for drawing that line. Whether he considers his wife Glenna private or immaterial I will leave him to explain. I can tell you his medical school was the University of Michigan, his neurosurgical training occurred in Portland, Oregon following which he paid his deferment debt to his country by serving in Vietnam. He has practiced neurosurgery in Tacoma, Washington for 41 years the last 8 of which have been in a consulting role. His commitment to his colleagues and medicine came early. He served as President of his county medical society only 8 years after opening his office as well as acting as Chief of Staff at Tacoma General Hospital. He began his service to the CSNS as a Washington State delegate in 1983 and has frequently served in that capacity to this day. His achievement of a law degree in 1976 put him in a perfect position to chair the CSNS Medical Legal committee upon its creation and for many years thereafter. His reasonable demeanor and law degree positioned him to serve on the AANS Professional Conduct Committee which he has chaired since 1994. His Presidency of the Washington State Neurosurgery Association presaged his Presidency of the Western Neurosurgical Society and all of his achievements in and service to neurosurgery led to his receiving the AANS Distinguished Service Award in 1999. Although the Leibrock Lifetime Achievement Award sounds like it should be given to neurosurgeons falling somewhere between demented and dead, our recipient today is still bright and still active. He and Glenna are building a home on the remote coast of northern Vancouver Island in British Columbia to which we hope he will not permanently retire anytime soon. Abraham Lincoln said all men are born originals but too many die as copies. Today we honor a true, persisting original. It was definitely original to inform Glenna in 1984 that he planned to be part of a climb of Mt. Everest. She gave her permission after insisting he buy a humongous life insurance policy to protect their 4 young children and he reached 23,000 foot level while supporting a successful climbing team. Ladies and gentlemen, I have the honor of presenting to you a man who is held in high esteem, has been a high achiever for our profession and whose footprints will forever be very difficult to fill, particularly those he left on Everest, W. Ben Blackett. |