You know how you occasionally stumble upon an obituary that makes you wish you had met that person while they were still alive?

A Gazette obituary for Dr. Apostolos Nikolaos Papageorgiou, who recently passed away at age 88, left me feeling that way. Born and raised in Greece, Papageorgiou left a poor country during a dictatorship to study medicine and science and later came to Montreal for a year of postgraduate training. Just another one of those dreaded international students our provincial government appears convinced strain public services, housing and the French language.

Papageorgiou didn’t plan on staying, but after being offered the position of Chief of Neonatology and Pediatrics at Montreal’s Jewish General Hospital — where he served for an impressive 47 years — he built a life here. As one of the world’s leading neonatologists, he transformed neonatal care in Quebec and was instrumental in saving thousands of tiny patients born here. I can think of few things as laudable as caring for preemie babies.

That he worked his entire career at the Jewish General also struck a chord with me. One of........

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