Antonio Nogueira Da Rocha Melo, formerly Director of Neurosurgical Services at the Santo Antonio General Hospital in Porto, died on Monday 30th April 2007, after a short illness. He was aged 83 years. Rocha Melo pioneered the development of neurosurgical services in the North of Portugal.
Rocha Melo was born on 11th December 1923 in Novelas, in the district of Penafiel, in the North of Portugal. He graduated with distinction in medicine and surgery from the University of Porto in 1953. Appointed to the Department of Neurology Rocha Melo received, through neurologist Corino de Andrade, both the stimulus and the opportunity, with the help of the British Council, to proceed to Edinburgh, in September 1955, for neurosurgical training under Professor Norman Dott and John Gillingham. Returning to Porto in 1958 he assumed specialist responsibility for neurosurgical services in the North of Portugal.
During the next twenty years Rocha Melo dedicated himself to the creation of a neurosurgical service of the highest standard. He raised substantial private funds to finance development. He became Chief of Neurosurgery in 1972 and Director in 1978. From 1980 to 1993 he occupied the Chair of Neurosurgery at the Institute Abel Salazar.
His unanimous election as Vice-President of the Sociedade Luso-Espanhola de Neurocirurgia in 1962 was, for a time, blocked by political influences in Portugal. He was elected President in 1966 and again in 1980. He was President of the Sociedade Portuguesa de Neurologia e Psiquiatria from 1974 to 1977.
In 1978 the Medical Council in Portugal charged him with establishing a Specialty College for Neurosurgery, to set standards for training and assessment according to EANS guidelines. He was elected Portuguese delegate to the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies in 1980.
Retaining his links with British Neurosurgery he remained an Associate Member of the SBNS and in 1987 he was invited to join the editorial board of the then fledgling British Journal of Neurosurgery.
From his student days Rocha Melo was a prominent member of groups agitating for democratic change (Movimento de Unidade Democratica). This was a life-long commitment, pursued regardless of personal hazard. Following the “Carnation Revolution” of 25th April 1974 he was appointed a member of the Municipal Assembly in Penafiel, participated in the Manifesto Reformador, and served on a commission for the rehabilitation of political prisioners.
For many years a collector of modern painting and supporter of emerging artists, in more settled times Rocha Melo became involved in the creation of the Serralves Gallery for Contemporary Art in Porto, serving on the board of that Foundation from 1989 to 1997.
On retirement in 1993 Rocha Melo was decorated by the President of Portugal, Mario Soares, with the Grande Ordem Militar de Sant'Iago da Espada. In 1996 he was made an Honorary Citizen of Penafiel. He was identified as one of the leading citizens of Porto in that city's Year of Culture in 1998. In 2007 he was made a Freeman of the City of Porto (Medalha Municipal de Merito) with a ceremony on the April 25th. His final illness prevented his attendance.
Rocha Melo concealed, within a frame not apparently robust, a personality of great strength and determination, braced by innate conviction. Shrewd and quick-witted, he was a man of wide knowledge and cultivated taste. He was at ease in any company. He was a supreme ambassador for Portuguese neurosurgery.
He married, in August 1955, Maria Helena Larcher Graca, who supported him in all his ventures. A son Alan, born in Edinburgh, is now a family doctor in Penafiel. A daughter, Maria-Joao, holds a senior nursing post at the Hospital Santo Antonio. A granddaughter follows him in Medicine. Three nephews are neurologist, neurosurgeon and neuroradiologist respectively.