Personality of the Month: Dr. Rosalie Namer Aoudeh

We spoke in last month’s issue of Dr. Rosalie Namer Aoudeh’s visit to her mother country — Lebanon — in the company of two American women physicians, specialists in children’s medicine, on a journey by way of England, Greece, Lebanon, Iran, Europe, and then Aden to New York.

And since Dr. Rosalie enjoys a high standing in New York as a physician and as a lady of society, and in fulfillment of our promise of last month, we have devoted this piece to introducing her to our readers as a Lebanese lady in whom one may take pride and glory!

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Who is she?: She belongs to that seasoned generation to whom it was given to be born and to grow up in America, land of liberty and learning, of Lebanese parents. Her father, Daoud Namer, emigrated from Marjayoun in the closing years of the last century and, like other emigrants, made his way in the world of commerce until he attained a distinguished commercial and social position. He married her mother, of Hasbaya, and they were blessed with six children, three boys and three girls, the eldest of them all being Rosalie.

The dream of childhood: Rosalie received her education in the schools and universities of the state of Texas, where her father was settled, and her childhood soon blossomed into gifts we do not exaggerate in calling extraordinary. Medicine was “the dream of her childhood!” Before the end of the elementary stage her bent revealed itself, through her activity and her excellence, in the natural sciences and mathematics, then in physics and chemistry; and when, years later, she obtained her medical degree “with distinction,” the result came as a surprise to none of her acquaintances!

She specializes in children: She took delight in watching children grow and develop, and in watching the sick among them mend toward recovery. Hence the idea occurred to her of specializing in children; she entered the Hopkins medical school and graduated after four years, to direct her vitality and her intelligence to research into tuberculosis and pneumonia in children. She did this work at a California hospital, then at “Bellevue” Hospital in New York, where she completed her specialization in children.

She founds a children’s department: Here, at “Bellevue” Hospital, the gifts of the young Lebanese doctor crystallized; she shone among her colleagues, men and women, through six years of work and specialization, until in 1947 the administration entrusted her with founding a department for children. This was a great honor for her, and an eloquent acknowledgment of her ability and her excellence.

A professor of pediatrics and an author: Two years after founding the children’s department at “Bellevue” Hospital, she moved to the “New York Medical Institute and Hospital,” and she is still at this institute as “professor of pediatrics” — reckoned the highest post a woman can attain in the world of medicine...

She has medical works on the subjects into which she has inquired and researched — I mean “Tuberculosis in Children” and “Pneumonia” — and also on general subjects concerning children and how to keep their small bodies sound and strong to resist disease.

She married Elias Aoudeh: Dr. Rosalie’s success in medicine, and the spread of her name in its world, did not come at the expense of her remaining possibilities, as so often happens. Nor did the practice of her profession absorb her so completely as to keep her from looking about for the knight of her dreams! She was a comely young woman, brimming with femininity and charm,

And the plain, unequivocal truth is that nature was generous to Dr. Rosalie and endowed her without measure... She is one of those few women of captivating personality, who shine in their circle and their society and plainly draw all eyes as outstanding individuals above the ordinary level! And thus “Rosalie the woman” knew how to choose her life’s companion, in a country where the two sexes are equal in this right.

She met him in New York, a Lebanese and a university man — Elias Aoudeh of Kfarhazir, in the Koura, a graduate of Columbia University and a great dealer in classical furniture. There was love, then understanding, then marriage; she now has by him three offspring: two boys and a girl, every one of them a burning flame of intelligence and of longing for knowledge and learning. It seems as though all three have inherited their mother’s bent for medicine!! But the mother believes the second boy has the broadest and richest possibilities for entering this field.

How does she reconcile profession and home?
The “doctor-wife-mother” had to muster all her powers and gifts to reconcile her work and her home; and we all know what hardship a woman endures for that, above all when her house is an “open house,” and when her husband is generous and hospitable, inviting the Lebanese coming and going by way of New York to stay with him in the good old Lebanese fashion — in a country that has disowned this kind of hospitality, and where working hands have grown scarce... But Dr. Rosalie knew how to master her hours by discipline and organization — every minute has its account! — and she came out of the trial victorious and proud... She has a memorable saying on the matter: “If a woman is not to break down between home and work, she must be strong — in body and in mind.”

The hardest crisis of her life as a doctor:
She recalls it with a deep sigh, as though she still felt its tightness within her ribs! It was during the Second World War, when the men were called to the colors and the work remained on the shoulders of the women. She was then with child, and the responsibilities at the hospital had multiplied to an unbelievable degree; but she bore up, carried her cross with a smile, and refused not a single request, feeling all the while that it was her duty as a citizen. “In times of war,” she said, “conditions grow critical, and only the weak of faith gives way and shrinks from discharging his responsibility as a citizen!!” And perhaps it was this role above all that inscribed her, by right and by merit, a mighty heroine!