UF College of Medicine professor James William Doyle is not only remembered as a successful educator and doctor of ophthalmology, but also as an amateur comedian.
Doyle, 53, died Wednesday after suffering from a long-term neuromuscular wasting disease that weakened his muscles. His colleague, Dr. Sonal Tuli, an assistant professor and program director for the ophthalmology department, said Doyle was a jokester who loved to make people laugh.
"He was always such a lighthearted person," Tuli said. "He always had a joke of the day."
Tuli knew Doyle for seven years and worked with him in the eye clinic at Shands at UF and at the Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
"Patients loved him," she said. "They thought he was the best."
She said doctors diagnosed him with the disease two years ago, and after losing strength in his arms and hands, Doyle left his clinical work and went on disability leave.
Still, she said, he continued to come in whenever he had the energy to teach. Doyle's final lecture was about two weeks before his death.
He entered the lecture hall in a wheelchair. Before the period ended, he had to stop because he had trouble breathing and could not speak much longer.
Tuli said people in the department were amazed at his ability to stay upbeat.
Doyle kept telling jokes even in the final weeks of his illness, Tulsi said. She recalled one of the last times he spoke to her, giving her one last joke about a UF alumnus who walked into a Florida State University bar.
Tuli said he was a "funny guy" and will be missed.
