In Memoriam: Mary Despina Lekas, 1928-2023

Mary Despina Lekas, clinical professor emerita of surgery at the Brown University School of Medicine and a pioneering woman in the field of medicine in the state of Rhode Island during a career spanning more than 60 years, died on January 24. She was 94 years old.

A native of Worcester, Massachusetts, Dr. Lekas held a bachelor’s degree from Clark University in Worcester, where she was the only woman in her class studying pre-medicine. She earned a graduate degree at Boston University and a medical doctorate at the University of Athens Medical School in Greece. She completed her residency at three locations – Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, and the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Medicine in Otolaryngology and Neck Surgery.

Dr. Lekas was the first woman to head the otolaryngology department at Rhode Island Hospital. She was also the first woman to be a professor of clinical otolaryngology at Brown University’s medical school. Dr. Lekas was the first woman on the East Coast to become a Fellow in the Triological Society, the most prestigious society of her specialty. In 1980, she was named the first woman to be elected president of the New England Otolaryngological Society.

Dr. Lekas retired in 1996.