James Walter Fleshman Jr., MD: A Conversation with the Editor

Abstract

James Fleshman (Figure 1) came to Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas (BUMC) as chief of surgery and as the Helen Buchanan and Stanley Joseph Seeger Endowed Professor and Chairman in 2012. He was born on August 2, 1954, in New Orleans, Louisiana, and grew up in various southern US cities, in St. Louis, Missouri, and in Northern Ireland, which he loved and allowed him to do a good bit of traveling in continental Europe. He received his bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, summa cum laude, and received his medical degree 4 years later from Washington University School of Medicine. His training in general surgery was at the Jewish Hospital of St. Louis, a part of Washington University School of Medicine. He did a fellowship in colon and rectal surgery at the University of Toronto in Canada. After returning to St. Louis in 1987 as a member of the Section of Colon and Rectal Surgery of Washington University School of Medicine, he rapidly rose through the ranks to become full professor of surgery in 2000. When he came to BUMC in 2012, he was also made professor of surgery at Texas A&M Health Science Center.