Dr. George Richardson, 89; surgeon, teacher, poet

“He sort of broke the mold,’’ said his son Jonathan of Brookline. “My father always had a very personal relationship with his patients. His view of medicine and treating patients was all about the whole patient.

“He really cared about people, their emotional well-being, as well as their medical well-being.’’

Dr. Richardson, who also conducted research into gynecologic cancers and in later years wrote so much verse that at times he might have preferred the title poet, died of cancer July 1 in his Nahant home. He was 89.

Looking beyond surgery to see a patient as more than just a diagnosis on a clipboard was second nature for Dr. Richardson, who insisted that his own life transcend vocation.

As a pre-med student at Harvard, he studied Latin, Greek, French, and German. He played piano and was adept at sight-reading music.

His poetry evolved from a lasting love of books.

“He memorized passages of literature that he could recite up to his dying days,’’ his son said.

In the early 1960s, Dr. Richardson was president of the annual Boston Arts Festival, which drew crowds to the Public Garden.

Thirty years later, he noted in the annual report of his Harvard class that he and his wife “put in a lot of flying hours into ballroom dance lessons and competitions.’’

“He was a true renaissance man,’’ Schiff said. “He knew the arts; he knew the humanities; he knew medicine; he knew science; he knew how to speak to people.

“Being in his presence and listening to him talk about anything was just a joy,’’ he said. “It was like being around a symphony, because he had so many aspects to him. You wouldn’t say one instrument; it was multiple instruments. I’ve never met anybody like him and probably never will.’’

The youngest of three brothers, George Shattuck Richardson was born into a storied family of physicians, a fact that never strayed far from his thoughts.