It's such sad news to learn of the death of Dr. Paul Farmer, a co-founder of Partners in Health, and a pioneer in public health. There are many, many people who will undoubtedly share very thoughtful and educational pieces about the scale and scope of Dr. Farmer's impact on the world. I want to share a small, insignificant story about my interaction with him told in a long-winded manner.
In 2007, Dr. Farmer was scheduled to be the main speaker at Emory's Commencement ceremonies. I wouldn't graduate for another three years, but I was always staying abreast of what was going on. Like pretty much every year, there was some drama among the student body about whether the speaker was sufficiently important or famous to grace this event. The university addressed this in a real smart way: it gave away copies of Mountains Beyond Mountains, Tracy Kidder's book about the founding of PIH and Dr. Farmer, to students. And I think this mollified a lot of critics who previously simply didn't know who Dr. Farmer was. (My med school and public health friends were over the moon about the selection.) I didn't read the book (at that time) but (thanks to the intervention of my roommate, Jesse - a med student) I did manage to wangle myself into a private reception for Dr. Farmer and other other honorary degree recipients at the university president's home on the evening before graduation.
At the reception, there was opportunity for guests to mingle with the esteemed honorees, and I, alongside Jesse, ended up talking to Dr. Farmer next to the appetizer buffet. He was an exceptionally friendly guy; very easy to talk to. I asked how he was feeling about the speech the next day, and he expressed some trepidation, but he acknowledged he'd given a lot of speeches before. He was going to speak about some political things, and he wasn't sure how it would go over at an event normally filled with laudatory rhetoric. I, a 26-year old law student, assured him he'd be great(!).
Somehow, I decided to lean into this encouraging attitude, and I went out that night and bought markers and some poster boards. I made a few signs.
The next day, Jesse and I got to Emory's quadrangle while everyone was lining up to process in for the event. We got into a strategic location, and then held our first sign up for everyone to see: EMORY LOVES PAUL F. (I should have spaced my letters out better to get FARMER in there - I'm sure a lot of people were like, "who is Paul F? Probably some graduating kid.")
Once the long procession wound its way to us, we made sure that Dr. Farmer saw the sign, at which point we revealed our second sign: REGARDLESS OF SPEECH QUALITY OR CONTENT. Dr. Farmer burst out laughing.
He did give a good speech. I don't remember much of it, but that's how a lot of speeches are. I do remember he mentioned the controversy of his selection as commencement speaker. He spoke about Emory's ideals and how we try to bring about a better world. He spoke about a young man who was a Haitian immigrant to the U.S., via Guantanamo Bay, and who became a soldier for the U.S. I remember in particular his discussion the treatment of Haitian refugees, and how, long before the War on Terror and the imprisonment of enemy combatants, the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay had been used as a legal no-man's land. The Coast Guard had used Gitmo as a extra-judicial site to detain HIV+ Haitian refugees it didn't want to allow into the country. I remember him talking about anti-immigration trends, and I remember him calling us to do better.
After the speech ended, Jesse and I held another sign at the end of the aisle, where Dr. Farmer would have a clear view of us: GOOD JOB PAUL! As Dr. Farmer processed away at the end of the event, he stopped and gave us the printed version of the speech he had read from. Jesse has that artifact.
Years later, Dr. Farmer and I sat next to one another at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine in New York City at the ordination of a mutual friend into the diaconate. By that time, I had read Mountains Beyond Mountains, and I felt somewhat sheepish that I had previously engaged Dr. Farmer with such casualness. But talking with Dr. Farmer was never intimidating. He said he'd been trying to remember why I looked vaguely familiar. We laughed when I told him the story. He was a kind, generous person - a model of how to be both incredibly impressive but also self-effacing and down-to-earth.
RIP Paul Farmer.