George A. Bray, MD: Progress in Obesity-Multidisciplinary Research, Multidimensional Man.

Abstract

George as a child. Who would have known then the impact he would make on the world of the science of obesity? George at the end of his tenure as executive director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center. As Mitzi watches, George receives a commemorative plaque from Dr. Claude Bouchard (executive director after George) during a 20th anniversary celebration event for Pennington Biomedical Research Center. In gratitude and acknowledgment for his work and contributions, and for always doing things the “George Bray way,” Pennington Biomedical named the walkway between the basic and clinical research buildings Bray’s “Weigh” in his honor on the occasion of his retirement from the center on 10 December 2014. George A. Bray was born 25 July 1931 in Winnetka, IL, during the peak of the Depression. He was the first child of George August and Mary H. Bray. His only sibling, Mary Elizabeth (Betsy) Bray, died secondary to rheumatic heart disease. Influenced by his mother, George developed a natural interest in education at a young age, even though one of his teachers at Hubbard Woods School in Winnetka reported that 11-year-old “George is doing good average work in all subjects” (1). Despite this inauspicious assessment, high school marked the emergence of a lifelong interest in and aptitude for science. This is clearly evidenced by his own writing in 1949 in an application for a national college scholarship program when he wrote: “Ever since I took my first science course in high school, I’ve been interested in the infinite possibilities of science.” When it came time to choose a college, George’s choice between Harvard and Brown University was based on the desire to attend one for college and the other for medical school. Choosing Brown University for undergraduate school was to have lifelong implications, as it was at …