Dr. Clinton J. Shope
By Cheryl Blackerby
BOCA RATON — The Shope Hope Bell hangs in the radiation oncology department at Lynn Cancer Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital. When patients have completed cancer treatments, they can celebrate their accomplishment, and life itself, by ringing the bell.
The bell was a gift of Dr. J. Clinton Shope, a radiation oncologist at the institute, who knew how it felt to travel the difficult road of cancer recovery. At the age of 20, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic or immune system.
“I thought it was important to have a symbolic bell in radiation oncology because it’s such a tough part of a cancer patient’s treatment,” said Dr. Shope when he presented the bell.
Dr. Shope died Aug. 8 with his family by his side after battling cancer for a second time. He was 55.
“He was one of the finest physicians to grace the halls of Boca Raton Regional Hospital,” said Dr. Tim Williams, medical director of Radiation Oncology, who worked with Dr. Shope for 29 years. “He got along with everybody, and was the best at ‘doctoring.’ He would open his wallet and give cash to patients for drugs. He would give them extra time. He basically gave his medical advice and warmth and love in a way few people were able to.”
He had enormous empathy for his patients, Dr. Williams said. “He had gone through toxic therapy for Hodgkin’s disease, a full dose of radiation, and beat the odds. It was tough stuff back then, a long and arduous course of therapy. He had an unshakeable faith in God and his place on Earth, and he was able to draw on that faith. And he was ridiculously intelligent.”
When diagnosed, Dr. Shope was a pre-med student at the University of Alabama. After undergoing extensive, and brutal, radiation treatments in 1978, Dr. Shope took summer classes in order to graduate on time with a bachelor of science degree, summa cum laude in microbiology. He then attended the University of Alabama School of Medicine, receiving his doctor of medicine in 1983.
“I kept an open mind when trying to choose a specialty in medicine, but after doing a rotation in radiation oncology with the physician who treated me, I was hooked,” he said.
Dr. Shope, who was born in 1957 in Cherry Hill, N.C, did his residency at the University of Florida, Department of Radiation Oncology, from 1983 to 1987. He worked three years at Naples Community Hospital, Naples, before moving to Lynn Cancer Institute in 1990.
He met his wife, Elana Hutchinson, a nurse, while he was in the hospital in Naples after falling off a ladder at his house. He woke up in the hospital with a concussion and two broken arms. His nurse, he wrote later, “had the most fantastic smile, was kind and thoughtful.” She was “heaven sent,” and, he noted, she was the only person he had ever met from Iowa.
On his final day in the hospital, he asked her if she would like to go out for some Chinese food when he could handle chopsticks again. She told him her phone number, but he couldn’t write it down. Luckily, it was the Naples prefix and his birthday. They were married in 1991 and had three children, Hannah, Luke and Nella.
Dr. Shope is survived by his wife, Elana; children, Hannah, Luke and Nella of Boca Raton; his mother, Nancy, of Naples; brother David (wife, Priscilla) of Naples; sister, Susannah Standal (husband, Mike) of Durango, Colo.; and niece and nephews, Kristina, J.D., Jake and Zak.
The hospital staff remembers Dr. Shope every time his bell rings.
“Dr. Shope recognized how important it was for cancer patients to feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of their treatments,” says Leticia Toledo, director of radiation oncology.
The bell’s ringing can be heard throughout the department, she says, and those who hear it “often are moved to tears in witnessing this demonstration of hope.”
A celebration of life service was held Aug. 14 at Calvary Chapel Boca in Boca Raton. Donations in Dr. Shope’s memory can be sent to Shope’s Hope Fund, c/o National Christian Foundation, 5110 N. Federal Highway, 2nd Floor, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308.
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