Dr. Roger Lawton Christian

Christian, Roger Lawton, M.D. — of Westwood, age 86, passed away from pancreatic cancer on September 12, at home, with his family at his side.

Roger was born and raised in West Orange, New Jersey, where he graduated from high school in 1957. He was the son of an osteopathic physician and a homemaker, and the older brother to two sisters. He developed a lifelong passion for sailing at Lake Mohawk and achieved the rank of Eagle Scout.

Roger graduated from Middlebury College in 1961 and earned his medical degree in 1966 from Harvard Medical School, in a combined program with Dartmouth Medical School. He then spent five years as a general surgery resident at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, beginning in 1966. In April 1968, while on a one-year surgical rotation at Boston Children's Hospital, he met Anne Carter Berger, head nurse of the Surgical Clinics. They were engaged after three dates, married that September, and honeymooned in Buzzards Bay, sailing on a friend's old wooden boat.

The couple settled in Roxbury where James Tobias was born in 1970. Upon completing his surgical residency in 1971, Roger and Anne drove to Fort Sam Houston, where Roger served as an Army surgeon for two years. He was instrumental in the early development of the Physician Assistant profession. Laura Elizabeth was born in 1972, and the following year the young family moved back to Boston.

Roger served as Chief of Surgery at the West Roxbury VA Medical Center until 1974, when he joined the small general surgery staff at what eventually became Brigham and Women's Hospital. Benjamin Powell was born in 1975. Roger retired in 2015 from a department that had grown and changed enormously over his nearly 40-year career. He was widely admired for his devotion to teaching — mentoring medical students and generations of surgical residents — and received numerous teaching honors alongside his reputation for expert surgical care.

Outside the hospital, Roger was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather. He is remembered for always being home when he wasn't at work, for his family photography and "slow-pan" videography, his popovers and turkey soup, secret family vacations, and his endless patience and grace.

He loved traveling the world with Anne; sailing with the guys and with the wives; opera; camps Becket and Chimney Corners; Billy Joel on long drives; fly fishing; singing with the First Parish and Saengerfest choirs; skiing; yard work; kites; body surfing on the Jersey Shore; and short showers. He had no patience for ketchup, spicy food, or gas-guzzling motorboats.

Roger is survived by his three children: James and his wife Sara, of Braintree; Laura, of Roslindale; and Ben and his wife Nicole of Barrington, RI; along with six grandchildren, and his sisters Linda Templeton of Pomfret, VT, and Carole Christian of Colfax, NC. He was predeceased by his wife of more than fifty years, Anne Berger Christian, in 2021.

Visitation will be held Friday, October 2, from 5:00 to 8:00 PM at Folsom Funeral Home, 649 High St, Westwood. Friends and family are also invited to a service celebrating Roger's life on Saturday, October 3, at 11:00 AM at First Parish Church of Westwood, 252 Nahatan St, Westwood. Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in his memory to the Becket Chimney Corners YMCA, First Parish Church of Westwood, or S&J's Purple Miles, benefiting Project Purple.