A Tribute to the Late Dr. George Povey
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. George Povey. George was a longtime friend of HAI, served on the original Board of Directors and provided guidance and inspiration to many of our staff and friends over the years. He was a major contributor to HAI work in Mozambique and East Timor and a thoughtful commentator in our advocacy efforts. He taught a popular course in the Master of Public Health program at the University of Washington and was a consistent contributor in their weekly seminar.
George was born in 1927 in Portland, Oregon, and trained as an internist, general surgeon, and obstetrician. He lived throughout the world, spending the past three decades in Mozambique and Vancouver, BC. Everywhere he lived, he combined his medical skills with activism, dedicating his life to social justice. He was a mentor and hero to many of us who worked with HAI.
George is the esteemed namesake behind HAI's "George Povey Award" given annually to honor the work by our colleagues and friends that best exemplify the dedication that George has shown to the global health field in his lifetime of achievement. He passed away in the morning on Saturday April 3rd in Vancouver, British Columbia. His family and friends were with him.
"George was a global citizen, classic activist, role model, and dear friend. He dedicated his life to social justice, wherever he was. He never seemed to lose sight of his purpose - in spite of the ups and downs of the situations in which he found himself. George was persistent, determined, resolute, unrelenting, unwavering, tenacious, strong-minded, gritty, dogged, and indomitable. He had a wonderful sense of humor, and never took himself too seriously. He was also a gravely-voiced singer for all occasions, and all around good guy."
– Steve Gloyd, Executive Director, Health Alliance International
"I found George such an inspiration. Despite his wisdom and years of experience, he was such a humble soul, always making every effort to encourage and support those of us who had the honor of working with him. George will be greatly missed and I am certain his legacy will continue to inspire those of us working in the field of public health for many years to come. "
– Nadine Hoekman, former Director of Timor-Leste program, Health Alliance International
"I think that what I appreciated most about him was integrity - he managed to live simply and in accordance with his values, and this gave him aura of confidence in himself, without any kind of ego or pride. Talk about a great role-model!"
– Andrew Bryant, former MPH student and friend
"He did not need to be the loudest voice in the room, he lived what he believed and quietly inspired us. I will forever remember George, showing up at the HAI office just off the bus from Vancouver with a duffel bag slung over his shoulder, black levis and boots and his orange polar fleece. A generous, humble spirit. I feel terribly lucky to have worked with him."
– Susan Thompson, Technical Advisor, Monitoring and Evaluation, Health Alliance International
"He could be ornery and he was always stubborn, but he was the best teacher of practical obstetrics I have known - and was the most dedicated to his students and patients."
– Colin, McCord, former student and colleague, Oxford, UK
"George Povey was professor of obstetrics for many of us here in Mozambique and certainly for many clinical specialists. As my professor during my years of medical school, I will remember him for the practical and good things he taught us about solving complicated labor in a resource constrained environment. We will miss him a lot."
– Humberto Cossa, friend, former student and colleague from the Ministry of Health in Mozambique.
"George was a lovely man who arrived in his rain slicker, by bus from Vancouver, to talk honestly about what he had seen and survived. He seemed to represent the finest tradition of pre-corporate "international health" - he did what was important, and what he cared about, and the money was never the first thing. What a person!"
– Friend
"I am so sad to hear about George's death. He worked in Tunisia in the sixties and made some very valuable contributions to its maternal and child health program. He taught me a lot about the history of my own country and I will never forget that. I will also remember his guitar playing and all the bluegrass songs he knew by heart. May he rest in peace."
– Zied Mhirsi, Clinical Advisor for the International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH)
"George was an inspiration to all of us working in global health and social justice. He was an exceptional person. What a sad day!"
– Beth E. Rivin, Director, Global Health and Justice Project
Comments
George Povey was a disciplined, dedicated, quintessentially kind human being who was at his finest in the field. Although his friends included heads of state, and chairs of Harvard departments, he was in character an obstetrical Ernie Pyle, who kept his sympathies with the rank and file midwives. He lived simply, and worked ceaselessly.
Many a lucky student and colleague has a chapter of their life titled “Adventures with George” in which one stood in awe as he would orchestrate 14 high risk deliveries in a shift, ride his bicycle through Maputo traffic, or receive a secret summons to aid an ANC member. George was utterly cool under pressure. If a runner announced that Renamo banditos were coming over the hill and your car wouldn’t start, he’d mention off hand that he was a mechanic, and get the damn thing moving. After hearing his instructions how to open a child’s airway in the back of a truck with an exacto knife, tampons and the shell of a bic pen, I forever after would feel the notch in an Adam’s apple and think of it as George’s notch. To his face, I called him St. George. But in my heart, I see him among the midwives of Maputo General, to whom he would bequeath a Sunday jar of jam and 14 years of his life, and I think of him as mi Ché of the Parteras.
I was very saddened today to hear of George’s passing. I have known George since I was very young. He bought me my first 10-speed bike and taught me how to fix it. He has also been my source of inspiration for travel to developing countries (I had a world map on my wall from the ages of 5) and to develop a career in health care. He is all that has been spoken about in previous replies, I laughed and smiled and cried even more as I read through them. George was an amazing person who will forever be a source of inspiration! I hope I am one day able to touch a fraction of what he has! What an amazing life and man! I only wish I could say one last good-bye-I miss his black levi’s, his bike, oh and that note pad that was with him everywhere! I miss you George Povey. Love Zoe
We had the great privilege of George’s friendship for nearly 40 years. Our house served as his Vancouver “base camp”, a place to store the few possessions that he had, to come from and go to the work to which he dedicated his life. He inspired our sons, and us, with his quiet and absolute commitment to social justice and maternal health in some of the most challenging places on earth, making a real difference at the grass-roots level. George, I will really miss our “flapjack breakfasts” and the opportunities they gave us for conversations with you. Like Zoe, I wish I could have said goodbye. Betsy
George (or Uncle Warren as he was among his family) was part of my life for almost four decades. I don’t recall how we met -likely on some anti-war demonstration in the early 1970s – but it was a long and meaningful relationship. He lived with us for a while, which was hugely entertaining. He would rise at 5:00 am and go jogging – in army boots. He was part of a mountain rescue team and would go off on missions at unearthly hours of a winter morning. He would also go on training sessions – spending nights in snow caves or sleeping in a hammock half way up some sheer rock face. He was gentle and kind and without question one of the most dedicated men I ever met. He was very taken by the example of the Canadian progressive doctor Norman Bethune and forever sought impossible assignments == the Sahel, Mozambique, Timor Leste, Cambodia, and Bangladesh, where he gave his all, with little regard for his personal safety or, sometimes, his health. He had to be extracted from Bangladesh in 1995 and survived in the UBC hospital only because he insisted that every measure, however risky, should be taken. He had too much to do, too many medical students, in both Vancouver and Seattle, to leave this mortal coil before he had done all that could be done to raise consciousness about the issues of international health, which were not simply medical but political, social and economic. He had dipped his toes in the rice paddies and was an enormous inspiration to his own students, and to mine, for I was sometimes fortunate in persuading him to come to speak to my undergraduate sociology classes. We would have amazing conversations, sometimes over dinner (no birds and mammals, he did like salmon) but typically over Sunday “flapjack” breakfasts, where he drank gallons of tea, ate his share of flapjacks but also contributed large quantities of fruit and often smoked salmon. He would arrive on his bike, lights flashing on his helmet, divest himself of his protection against errant motorists and inclement weather, with an enormous pack (from which he extracted the fruit and salmon) replacing them with old issues of the Guardian (which he loved) and The Economist, which he didn’t like, but which he read. He devoured The New York Times which he read on a daily basis, not only adding bulk to his pack, but keeping him abreast of “all the news that fit to print”, with an American accent. He liked Canada, not least the system of health care, but he was acutely aware of his American roots, to which he will return in a family burial plot near Portland (his birthplace) but only after his body has served to educate medical students. Even in death his moral commitments stand out and his commitments to educate a new generation are astonishingly clear. I will miss George. He was a great example and a great human being.
George for me represents the essence of life in its fullest: living a simple life with a profound consideration for others and humanity. When I met George for the first time in the early 1990, I did not think we were going to get alone. He appeared to me as a person disconnected from others and what was going around him. I could not be more wrong. Within a couple of months, I discover the true George and he remained a true friend and someone I could freely discuss anything with. Like you, I have many memories of George. For example: (1) those evenings seating by the fire place and singing ancient kindergarten as well as revolutionary French songs as George played the guitar; (2) visiting our chickens with George and watching them fight over left over spaghetti as George comments on the battle and he baptized them as Josephine and sisters; (3) watching George unpacked a brand new Mac computer and within 30 min turning it into what looks from the outside like a piece of junk because of all the duck tape he used to disguise it; (4) seating in George large living room in Vancouver and watching him be content in this room void of material things that many of us feel that we cannot do without them. As long as he had his bike, his maps, his books with the hard covers torn off by him intentionally to make them light to travel with, he was satisfied; (5) going for a walk with George at Stanly park and listening to him tell us about real people history; and (6) dining at the “non-member only” golf club and hearing Georges commentaries about the food, the history of the club, the native people, the plants we saw from the outside.
George was a walking encyclopedia. He was also a person with a genuine sense of love and integrity for humanity. He also had a great sense of humor. At my last visit with him last January at his new condo by the University, he showed me a mural in front of his condo where an old couple was riding together on a bike and the man had a rose in his mouth. George said that the meaning of the picture is to make the seniors living in the building have hope and believe that that someday soon they would be able to ride a bike again like that couple and not think about death and dying. I am sure that many people passed by that mural day after day without even noticing it. George not only noticed it but gave meaning to it. To me, that is George. He found meaning in life from the most mundane thing to a revolution or a war. If there is heaven after life on earth, George should not have to wait to have a place there. I will miss George and I hope to exemplify a few of his principles to guide what I do in my daily activities. Dearest George Povey, rests in peace.
George taught me in 1999 at UBC and was the most remarkable and inspirational person I have ever met. He had a unique way of bringing the best out in everywhere and every class we all left energized to make a difference in the world. His unwavering commitment for social justice and change has left a legacy to all those he touched and inspired.
George was one of my strongest friends and supporters during my MA,Ph.D. and post-doctoral years. He offered consistent and very true advice on the paths that I could take with my Master’s degree, Doctoral dissertation and, then, with my post-doctoral research. Not only did he always share where opportunities in global health research were located, but he also remained ever-aware of the very ways in which my personality and temperament were better suited to certain kinds of research settings. I’ve shared my experiences with him and followed his advice for years, and with no regrets. I’ve also been the grateful recipient of his joy at my successes. George gave me the courage to find my own path, and with all the kindness and encouragement I could have hoped for. He - and his wonderful online postings - will be missed very much.
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