I’m always on the alert to learn about people who live multidimensional lives. By all accounts, Dr. Robert Buckman fit that description perfectly. He was, among other things, an oncologist, professor, writer, broadcaster and humorist. Unfortunately, he died in his sleep on October 9 at 63, on an airplane returning from England (his country of birth) to Canada, where he lived for the last 25 years of his life. Since 1979, he coped with life-threatening illnesses and still managed a whirlwind schedule. From everything I’ve seen, he touched a lot of lives in person, in print, on television and through videos made with John Cleese, of Monty Python fame.
I had never heard of Robert Buckman before two weeks ago, but I’ve found the accounts of his life to be very moving. I had just arrived in Toronto to do a presentation the next day at The University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. I read obits/tributes to him in the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star (for which he was once a columnist) and the National Post. There have also been pieces in the UK by The Guardian (written by Terry Jones, a Monty Python alumnus with whom Buckman had been working in the UK), The Independentand no doubt others.
When I got back to my hotel the next evening, I began to watch a show about cancer research featuring Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Emperor of All Maladies, on The Agenda with Steve Paikin, on Canada’s TVO network. During the show, I was stunned to see Dr. Buckman appear as a panelist. I figured that it must have been a rerun, but it turns out that he had been a frequent guest, and had taped this appearance right before he flew to the UK. Paikin wrote a nice tribute, Remembering Rob Buckman, on the TVO website. Buckman seems like he would have been a great person to know. And had I not been in Toronto for those two days, I may never have heard of him at all.
