Dr. Jacques E. Botton

Dr. Jacques E. Botton, 82, of Lynchburg, Virginia, died on October 22, 2011, at Lynchburg General Hospital after complications from surgery. He was preceeded in death by his wife Sandra H. Botton in 2008.

He is survived by his sons Charlie, Peter, and Maury and daughter-in-law Rachel Daniell; his stepdaughter, Brooks Morrison Tyree and her husband Hunter; his stepson, John Morrison; step-granddaughter, Kasey Brooks Morrison; and his ex-wife, Nancy Lupton Dirom. He also leaves a sister-in-law, Sherry Holliman and her daugther Jenna; a nephew, Henri Farhi and his wife Kit and their son Jamie; and a niece, Veret Kasavi and her children Dalit and Eli.

Jacques was born in Istanbul, Turkey, on July 8, 1929, to Ephraim and Esther Botton. In a house and a city where many languages were spoken, he never considered it unusual that he grew up speaking Turkish, French, Spanish, and German. English and Italian would come later.

Early on he had multiple exposures to American culture, which may have played some part in his ultimately deciding to live in the United States: he was an avid reader of American comics that had been translated into Turkish such as The Lone Ranger, Mandrake, and Popeye; he loved Boris Karloff movies (which he claimed was a childhood inspiration for becoming a neurosurgeon!); and he played bass fiddle as a teenager in the Boy Scout jazz band, while listening to records by jazz luminaries such as Louis Armstrong, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Nat King Cole.

Following his graduation from high school at Galatasaray Lisesi in 1948, Jacques entered the Medical School at the University of Geneva, in Switzerland, where he began his study of neurosurgery. During his first day in school, he met a fellow classmate, Paul Bedrossian, who remained a lifelong friend and who challenged Jacques to study even harder than he was accustomed. In order to qualify for his \"Doctoris Medicorum,\" Jacques wrote a thesis about cerebral ateriosclerosis, which was eventually published in the Swiss medical journal Acta Helvetica. He received his diploma in 1955.

In June of that year, Jacques boarded the Ile de France and set sail for New York\"" something he later referred to as \"the biggest leap of my life.\" Through an American classmate in Geneva, Archie Gillman, Jacques had secured a rotating internship at the St. Vincent\"™s Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, which lasted through the early summer of 1956. Jacques then trained as a resident in neurosurgery, first at the Guthrie Clinic at the Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pennsylvania, and then at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond from 1956 to 1961. Following the completion of his residencies, he did a fellowship in neurosurgery in Stockholm, Sweden, at the Serafimerlasarettet Hospital under Professor Herbert Olivecrona.

After having been well received in an early visit to Lynchburg by Dr. George Craddock (internist) and Dr. William Pugh (general surgeon), and with good recommendations from his MCV teachers, Jacques was invited to set up a practice in 1961, becoming the first neurosurgeon in town. (His first office was in the Allied Arts Building on Church Street, where he leased two rooms for $85 a month.)

There were two milestones for Jacques in 1963: the first was passing his Neurosurgical Board examinations in Chicago (along with his good friend Dr. Italo Rinaldi); the second, on July 4, 1963, was being granted U.S. citizenship at a ceremony in Monticello under what he remembered as a beautiful and sunny sky.

With the encouragement of the local medical community, Dr. Botton helped establish the Neurological Intensive Care Unit at the Lynchburg General Hospital in early 1970. Then, in 1971, he expanded his practice by inviting Dr. George Hurt (another neurosurgeon) and Dr. Harold Riley III (neurologist) to join him, forming the Lynchburg Neurological Center at a new building on Thomson Drive. Dr. Botton served as President of the Neurosurgical Society of Virginia and West Virginia from 1992 to 1994. He retired from practice in 1994.

Among many other activities, Jacques enjoyed playing tennis, reading, traveling, discussing and debating history, listening to classical music, and communicating with his many friends and relatives all over the world. He will always be remembered for his intelligence, compassion, wit, and his seemingly indefatigable sense of humor.

The family will be forever grateful to Ms. Seagpher Bateman for her loving and attentive care of Dr. Botton during the past several years.

The family will receive friends at Jacques\"™s residence on Langhorne Road from 6:00 \"" 8:00 p.m. on Monday, October 24, 2011.

A funeral service will conducted at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 25, at Agudath Sholom Synagogue, 2055 Langhorne Road, Lynchburg, Virginia, with Michael A. Gillette officiating. A graveside service will then be held at Spring Hill Cemetery for family and close friends.

Memorial contributions may be made to Agudath Sholom Synagogue, 2055 Langhorne Road, Lynchburg, Virginia, 24502, or the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 100 Raoul Wallenberg, PL, SW, Washington, DC, 20024.

Tharp Funeral Home & Crematory, Lynchburg, is assisting the family: 434-237-9424.