A good friend. A meticulous surgeon. A real gentleman.

As the Albert Lea community pays tribute to the late Dr. Harry B. Neel, his former co-workers, associates and family members are sharing memories of his life as a pioneer of medicine in this area.

Neel, 103, died Oct. 21, from complications of a fractured hip. He had lived at Thorne Crest Retirement Community since July.

‘The patient always came first’

The first board certified surgeon in southern Minnesota and northern Iowa outside of the Mayo Clinic, Neel was known for taking care of his patients 110 percent, said Dr. Bill Buege, who worked with Neel from 1969 until Neel retired.

Buege said Neel taught him how to care for patients.

“In his mind and the way he functioned, the patient always came first,” said Neel’s son, Dr. H. Bryan Neel. “That was most important. He took that as a great responsibility and a great honor.”

He said his father had a great love for medicine and surgery and continued learning about it even to the end.

“His surgery and surgical care are really legendary,” Bryan Neel said.

Harry Neel graduated from Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., and Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, Md.

In April of 1936, he moved to Minnesota to be a resident in surgery at the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Medicine in Rochester.

Together with other doctors, Neel founded the Albert Lea Medical and Surgical Clinic.

Even when Neel retired in his mid-80s, he would continue getting calls from patients with questions, his son said.

Dr. Clayton Nelson called Neel “a very good doctor and a real gentleman.”

The two worked off and on together for several years at different clinics.

Nelson said he often learned different, better ways to perform a surgery from Neel.

“He was an expert surgeon,” Buege said. “If something did go rather drastically in the wrong direction — which happened a lot in medicine in those days — he never got rattled.”

At his birthday parties in recent years, Neel would often have patients from the past come and give testimonials about how he had saved their lives.

“He had a great patient following,” Buege said.

A true patriot

Neel served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, on the hospital ship of the USS Solace, and was active in the YMCA and Boy Scouts of America when he was growing up.

He became the first Eagle Scout in Greensboro, N.C., an accomplishment he regarded as one of his favorites, Bryan Neel said.

“He really believed on the values in which America was founded,” his son said. To the very end, he had a great interest in politics, American policy and the changes taking place in the country.

Over his lifetime he received many honors, including the Distinguished Citizen Award from the North Carolina Twin Valleys Council of Boy Scouts of America, and has served as honorary chairman for the Naeve Hospital Care Foundation’s Community Legacy campaign.

His birthday, May 14, has been named as Harry B. Neel Day of the city of Albert Lea, and he’s been featured in recent Memorial Day and Third of July parades.

“He was such a wonderful person,” said Omkar Ghimire, who first met Neel in 1992 after moving to the United States from Napal. “He has all the charm and all the goodness in his life. Anytime you saw him he was the same. He was a great person.”

Ghimire, a CNA, cared for Neel at Albert Lea Medical Center after Neel broke his hip. He also had a chance to care for him at Thorne Crest.

A long life of caring for others

A lot of people ask how Neel lived to be 103.

Bryan Neel said his father was able to live so long because he was very self reliant.

“He did not depend on other people to do things for him,” he said. “His preference was to do things for other people.”

He enjoyed having people over for dinner parties at his home on Massee Street and had grown as a cook in recent years.

Buege said earlier this year, Neel invited he and his wife and another couple over for dinner. It was a seven-course dinner, prepared by himself. It included apple pie, made from apples from his own tree.

About five years ago, Neel taught a group of kids how to play golf in his backyard.

He loved to play golf and had a garden every year until this year.

Neel loved horses and was interested in new farming technology, his son said.

“I think none of us would ever aspire to be like him because we would never be able to do it,” Buege said.

Neel will be buried in Boston, Ga., with a private family memorial service.