LAUSR

Sir, Ricardo Baroudi was born in 1932 in São Paulo. He was the fourth son of a Lebanese couple. His father is from Tripoli in north Lebanon and his mother was originally from Beirut. All through his life, he was very proud of his origins. His marriage with Bea, the great love of his life, in 1975, brought him two children: Marcus Ricardo, a lawyer, and Liza Beatriz, a fashion stylist. He was later gifted with four grand children. He would always express his family pride, especially during Christmas by sending out postcards with family pictures to close friends. Ricardo graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of São Paulo. His post-graduate training was in the Clinic Hospital of São Paulo University. Six years later, he moved to Campinas with his partner Dr. Edwald Merlin Keppke. Both were pioneers in the specialty in this city which in 1961 had only 230,000 inhabitants. For the first fifteen years of his professional activities, Dr. Baroudi was involved in both academic and private practice in esthetic and reconstructive surgery. Later on, he concentrated on esthetic surgery until he retired after 52 years of practice. From 1969 to 1973, he developed the Plastic Surgery Department of the Medical School of Campinas University, São Paulo State, where he became Chief. During this active period, he combined scientific activities and his private clinic work with the administration of national and international Plastic Surgery societies. He was General Secretary and then twice President of the Brazilian Society of Plastic Surgery; President of the 12th Brazilian Society of Plastic Surgery Congress in conjunction with the 9th Congress of the Latin American Society of Plastic Surgery in São Paulo (1972); President of the 12th International Congress of IPRAS (International Confederation for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery) in Rio de Janeiro, 1997; President of ISAPS (1995–1997), and he presided over the 14th ISAPS Congress in São Paulo in 1997. Author of more than 130 publications in national and international books and journals, Dr. Baroudi edited a book on Body Contouring Surgery in 1993. In the first 64 international ISAPS post-graduate teaching courses, he participated in 43. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the Brazilian Journal of Plastic Surgery since 1996 and the newsletter of IPRAS since 2013. Founder and President of APSLD since 2010, he was its Honorary President. I came to knowRicardo Baroudi 25 years ago while attending in London a conference entitled “Aesthetic Surgery of the 90’s: An Update” on May 11–13, 1993. It was the first conference I attended outside Lebanon since I have returned home from Canada and the USA and 3 years after the war has ended in Lebanon. Not knowing many colleagues then, I was sitting alone in the back of the conference hall. A man came and sat next to me then looked at me and said in a funny Arabic accent “enta Lebanani?” (are you Lebanese?); I looked at him surprised then he added “ana Ricardo Baroudi” (I am Ricardo Baroudi). After a short conversation, I naively asked him if he would come to Lebanon despite the still unstable situation in case we organize a conference in Beirut. He replied in an eloquent attitude “invite me and you shall see”. Three years later, I invited him to the Third Pan Arab Congress of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Burns in Beirut. He immediately accepted the invitation without hesitation. On the planned day of his arrival to Beirut, I went myself to the airport to meet him. Those days, the new Beirut airport had not been built yet, and due to security reasons, all people going to the airport to meet someone were held outside in the sun behind an iron fence far away from the shabby old airport building. Ricardo’s plane landed, and I waited for him to exit the building. I waited a long time in vain without any possibility to ask if he was indeed on the plane; then suddenly, I noted in the far a tall man in blue jeans and a cowboy hat; the man took off his hat and started waving it at me; it was Ricardo. He came rushing towards me all * Bishara S. Atiyeh [email protected]