Top: J . Fletcher Lee, MD, with his wife Barbara. Above: Two of Lee’s detailed duck carvings.

by Jim Rogalski

From the time he first glued the tiny landing gear and wing flaps onto a model plane as a child, J. Fletcher Lee, MD’60, HS’60-’67, DC, has been inspired by the beauty and complexity of intricate detail.

He seemed predestined to enter the technical
world of surgery, but he says it wasn’t until being exposed to Barnes Woodhall, MD, and Guy Odom, MD, at Duke that his passion for neurosurgery was ignited.

“I liked the delicate nature of the work, but it was these two individuals particularly who influenced me,” Lee says.

Although retired since 1994, the life of 73-year-old Lee—a former president of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons and a Distinguished Southern Neurosurgeon honoree—
continues to be defined by the delicacy, precision, and passion of his work. Only now, instead of donning surgical loupes for a life-saving brain operation, he uses them to hone in on wood grain to help him craft accurate detail on one of his artistic duck carvings or miniature sailing ship replicas.

“To me this is relaxation, and I enjoy the opportunity to do it,” he says of his longtime carving hobby. “It has made my life much more enjoyable, and I hope other physicians look at this and decide that a hobby would be something nice to have.”

Lee’s message, however, is to not wait until retirement to find a leisurely pursuit. Psychological studies point to the wisdom of his advice, concluding that having a hobby entirely unrelated to work is important to overall health. That is especially so for medical professionals, who may need help relieving stress, rediscovering their creativity, or rebuilding their morale after trying times in the complex and changing world of medicine.

“For professional people, an avocation is important,” he says. “My hobbies are something I enjoy. I have a small room that I converted into a hobby room and I like being in there with my grandchildren, helping them to learn and enjoy hobbies as much as I do.”

Lee carves mainly ducks and miniature historic sailing ships. While drawing, carving, and painting ducks of any type certainly takes patience and dexterity, it pales in comparison to the dedication to detail he has shown for his most ambitious project.

Since the late 1970s Lee has been crafting a 36-inch long replica of the famous sailing ship Cutty Sark—one of the last sailing clippers built specifically for the China tea trade in the late 1800s.

“It was a time when they built some impressive ships, and the lines of this ship are just gorgeous,” he says.

He is building the replica plank by plank, just as ship builders created the original.

“It can be tedious, but it is very relaxing.” And extremely time consuming. “I may not live long enough to finish it,” he quips.

Lee got turned on to bird carving in the late 1980s when he visited a friend in Boston who was a duck-carving hobbyist. He frequently patterns his ducks after the old masters, whose creations are valued, expensive collectables.

He mainly gives away his creations to his children and grandchildren. He has four daughters and remarried in 1995 several years after the death of his first wife.

Between them Lee and his wife Barbara have six children and 14 grandchildren. They live in San Antonio, Texas.

Lee keeps a hand in medicine as a clinical professor of neurosurgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center, and assists in the teaching of the humanities and ethics course for senior medical students.