It is a distinct privilege and honor to have the opportunity to contribute to Dr. Akio Morita's commemoration!
I first had the opportunity to work with Dr. Morita when he was a resident at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and in fact, he served as my first assistant in the Fall of 1990.

I remember him as being a remarkably talented technical surgeon. At that time, I was operating on many arteriovenous malformations and other vascular lesions on a weekly basis. I had a robust open vascular practice as this was well before modern techniques of stereotactic radiation therapy and endovascular procedures. Although Dr. Morita was assigned as my "first assistant," at times I felt the roles were reversed given his surgical prowess. With great confidence I could let him do much of the case as he would need little in the way of instruction or support. After the AVM resection was completed, I would leave him to obtain hemostasis, which he did remarkably quickly and with great efficiency. His ability to divide and open the sylvian fissure and isolate an aneurysm was most impressive. He was also quite adept at performing microvascular anastomosis. The bottom line is that when he was on my service or in my operating room, I found great calm in knowing that I had a wonderful colleague helping me with complex surgeries.

Outside the operating room, we would joke about fishing. He would tease me that he had a "secret spot" that yielded an abundant number of large trout. Unfortunately, I never found his secret spot, but truth be told, I had mine! Sometimes, I would tell him my "secret spots," but I was stone silent about their locations knowing that if he fished those spots there would no fish left! In all seriousness, Professor Morita adapted remarkably well to the cold environment of Minnesota and engaged all my colleagues and residents very well. He was a great team player, very well-liked by all Mayo Clinic employees and the patients he managed.

As I reflect on my career at Mayo Clinic in the Department of Neurologic Surgery, I say with great confidence that Chairman Morita was one of the best residents I ever had the honor to train and work with. He is a superb operative neurosurgeon, a technical master, with a fantastic understanding of surgical three-dimensional anatomy and how to use this knowledge to approach and cure complex neurosurgical pathologies. Professor Morita is a true academician as demonstrated by his impressive commitment to scholarship and research. He is an internationally recognized neurosurgeon and is highly valued in our community worldwide. Despite these honors and awards, he is most humble in the tradition of many highly distinguished Japanese neurosurgeons.

It is a true honor for me to have worked with Chairman Morita and I hold him in the highest personal regard. Thank you for allowing me to contribute to the compendium which honors a great international neurosurgeon, Professor and Chairman Dr. Akio Moria.

With great respect,