All fellow Rotarians,

 

 I have been a member of Spring Branch Memorial Rotary club for about 8 yrs. now and I enjoy attending Rotary meetings.   I am particularly attracted by the mission of Rotary-- which is SERVICE.  With that in mind I am writing this short summary of my medical charity work in India and in Houston.

For last 26 years, I have been going to India (to my home city of Ahmedabad and my home state of Gujarat) every year for about 6 to 8 weeks. I do volunteer medical work-- especially, providing consultation and performing gastrointestinal endoscopy (gastroscopy and colonoscopy) These services are performed free of charge.  I work for 2-3 weeks each in the cities of Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar in Gujarat, which is my father's home town. In total I examine about 200-300 patients and perform about 100-150 endoscopy procedures. Many of these patients have very limited financial resources. Because of this, there are many times I also pay for their medicines, many of which may require 4 week to 12 month cycles.  I am very happy to do this and it gives me great satisfaction.  I bear all the expenses myself, do not receive any government help, and rarely receive private assistance.

 

I practiced Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine here in Houston for 31 years -- from 1973 to 2004.

 

I wanted to give back to this community, so I deliberately took retirement in 2005.  Since then, I have been working as a volunteer physician at several Houston area charity clinics, where I see patients completely free of charge. Again, I am very happy to do this and it gives me great satisfaction.

 

 This is why I like SPIRIT OF ROTARY which is SERVICE.

 

 I thank you for giving me chance to describe my activity.

Mary Hammon Lee is a fine art advisor at Frost.  This means Mary helps identify and acquire pieces to build and enrich your art collection.

Through her education and employment experiences, she has developed an expertise in Old Masters, American, Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary works of art.

 

Christie’s of New York asked Mary to travel throughout the country to view private collections and

develop relationships with clients while appraising fine art, furniture, jewelry and other collectibles. Among the collections she was responsible for at auction were A Trumbauer Estate on the Philadelphia Main Line and Property from the Estate of Margaret B. Nichols.

 

Mary earned a BA in art history from Washington and Lee University.  As a student, she volunteered for The Reeves Center, which housed the university’s extensive collection of Chinese export porcelain and other ceramics. She spent her summers working at several museums, including The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the McClain Gallery and Whitten & Proctor Fine Art Conservation.

 

During a semester abroad in Florence, Italy, she studied the Italian Renaissance and traveled extensively to museums and galleries throughout Western Europe.  Later, Mary earned her master’s in Modern and Contemporary Ar from Christie’s Education in London.

 

Mary follows the major and secondary fine art sales at the principal auction houses and prepares a newsletter for clients outlining the results.