Respect for the past, support for the future

When Henry Lew (CAMED'62) arrived in Boston for medical school, it was a whole new city for him-and a very different city from the one students experience today.

"Since I grew up in Chinatown, in Manhattan, it was very nice to go to medical school in Boston," says Dr. Lew. "It's a much smaller city, you know, and it doesn't have all the hectic attractions of Manhattan."

Still, he came to Boston knowing very little about it beforehand. "I didn't even know that Tufts Medical School was in Boston's Chinatown, and I said, 'Oh my goodness! Maybe I applied to the wrong school!'" He laughs, knowing that BU was clearly the right school, one that led to a highly successful career in internal medicine and cardiology.

When he arrived, though, the area around what was then Boston City Hospital "was really pretty much of a backwater, and the neighborhood was pretty grim in those days-it has improved!"

Medical education has changed, too.

"It was the days of the old-school, European-style professors," he recalls. "'You will do what we say. We don't like too many questions, and we don't need any feedback from students.'

He's quick to add: "But it was wonderful."

He's also glad to see that today's Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine "has stayed on the cutting edge of teaching technology. I mean, like, we were four students to a cadaver." Now, he notes, "Of course you can teach with technology, in addition to having a cadaver-which is better for people trying to dissect the same little piece of the body. That gets a little crowded!"

Because of Lew's respect for the school's high quality and his desire to help its students, he and his late wife created a fund to provide financial aid.

"We are grateful that Dr. and the late Mrs. Lew established the Winifred and Henry T. Lew, MD, Scholarship Fund in 2014," says Karen Antman, provost of the Medical Campus and dean of the Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. "Scholarships like theirs enable our students to graduate with manageable debt."

Lew is convinced that supporting future physicians is "one of the best ways to make use of whatever funds that you have," because "they will make a contribution to society," he says.

"The way I do it, which helps my taxes, is to do $100,000 a year through my IRA required minimum distribution. But of course," he adds with a smile, "If I don't live long enough to do the whole $1 million, then the estate will have to fill in."

In fact, his estate plans already include a $1 million bequest to the school. And even with that generous support, he'd love to do more.

"If I had even more money, I would happily do a fund for basic researchers also," Lew says. "There's so many ways to support the medical school. I mean, you can leave money for professorships, for chairmanships, for people going for MD/PhD degrees, and basic research. It's really thinking of where you can do the most good."