Jack Fong says, cheerfully, that he”™s a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to his off hours as chairman of Danbury Hospital”™s pediatrics department. “I do a lot of photography, and had a darkroom and enlargers when I was in high school,” he said, showing his age in this digital era. “I enjoy cooking,” he said. “By the time I got married in 1968, I was already 27, so I love cooking.”
In fact, both Fong and his wife, Margaret, love to cook. Each year they host a home-cooked meal for eight people as part of an annual Day to Make a Difference fundraiser for Danbury Hospital”™s pediatrics department programs. “My wife cooks a traditional Chinese banquet meal; I”™m the pastry chef,” he said.
Proceeds from this year”™s fundraiser Saturday at Ridgefield”™s Silver Spring Country Club will go to the Jack S.C. Fong, M.D., Pediatric Endowment, created last year to honor Fong, who is retiring Oct. 1. Well, not retiring, exactly. “I”™m redirecting,” he said. “I love pediatrics too much to give it up. And I”™d probably drive my wife crazy.”
Fong, 66, has been head of the pediatrics department since 1985, joining the hospital from McGill University in Montreal, where he was associate professor of pediatrics. After Oct. 1, “I”™ll be spending 60 percent of my time in the hospital as one of the members of the department, not the chief,” he said “My wife and I would like to travel, see the children and go on with some of the other things I want to do.”
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A big fish
Fong was born in Hong Kong and moved to Canada, where his father ran a small restaurant between Quebec City and Montreal. “My oldest brother went to the Philippines, my second brother to New Zealand, and both became dentists,” he said. His third brother also went into medicine, but died of cancer.
Hong Kong was a British colony, so “we grew up in a very Western way, all the way to an English-Anglican school,” he said. When he moved to Canada he took Canadian citizenship, then took a dual citizenship in the United States. “When I was a kid, I was always fascinated by Eastern and Western medicine,” he said. “My plan was to go into medical research.”
Those plans changed a bit once he entered college. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry from McGill University, then Master of Surgery and Master of Science degrees from McGill. From there he went to the University of Minnesota Medical Center for his pediatric residency, a detour from his plan to go into medical research. “When I went to McGill, my mentor was the chairman of the pediatrics department and chief physician at Montreal Children”™s Hospital,” Fong said. The mentor”™s influence was enough to convince Fong to change his career path, but not before he met his wife in the college laboratory. “She had graduated form the University of British Columbia,” he said of Margaret.. “She was born in Shanghai, moved to Taiwan, then to Hong Kong and then to Canada. We met in Montreal.” They married the day after he received his two master”™s degrees in 1968.
Fong stayed at the University of Minnesota Medical Center for five years, then returned to McGill in 1974 as an assistant professor and then associate professor of pediatrics.
But McGill had “three or four professors, 30 associate professors and 50 assistant professors,” he said. “The next promotion for me would be in about 20 years. I wanted to be a big fish in a little pond.”
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Kid”™s stuff
Fong began searching medical journal classifieds and saw one for pediatrics chair at Danbury Hospital. “My understanding is that 30 or 40 years ago, the hospital”™s leadership wanted the hospital to make significant progress and become more than a community hospital,” he said. Danbury wanted to grow into a teaching hospital with teaching programs, “and turned a corner in the late 1970s and early ”™80s. Now we”™re designated by the New York Medical College as a university teaching hospital.”
Fong said his goal when he joined the hospital “was to do a lot more, to make a bigger impact than staying as a small fish in a big pond.” In that he has been successful, building the hospital”™s pediatrics department and adding programs and services during his 22-year stay. He”™s also carved out time to raise a family and chase after some of his passions.
“I love to putter around in my garden,” Fong said, confessing that he”™s one of those guys who brings zucchini to his neighbors. And when he”™s not growing things, he”™s photographing them, creating a DVD of his work and even selling framed photographs at the Day to Make a Difference auction.
There”™s more. “I have a collection of about 30 kites and model airplanes in my basement, kid”™s stuff that I”™d like to have more time to do. And I like astronomy. My parents named me correctly,” he said of his jack-of-all-trades interests. “I don”™t want to sit still and do nothing,” he said. “That would be terrible.”
As for pediatrics, “I have no plans to stop,” Fong said. “I never had a private office, but I do have a lot of outpatient, inpatient and consultation services. When I was in Canada, I was clinically active as part of the faculty appointment at McGill,” visiting the local children”™s hospital wards and conducting outpatient services. That clinical activity “hasn”™t changed, even now,” he said.
As for the future, “I think I”™ll last into my 80s, God willing, and I probably won”™t stop until my health gets me or something gets me. There are so many exciting things to do, and after 39 years, I”™m going to redirect a little bit.”
For more information about the Day to Make a Difference: Pediatrics Auction or to make reservations to the event, call the Danbury Hospital”™s Development Fund office at (203) 739-7227.
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