Alumni Notebook: Alumni Weekend 2009
The fondest memories from half a century ago dominated the talk at a special luncheon that took place in the Memorial Union Main Lounge on May 8. That's when 24 members of the Class of 1959 gathered for their 50th reunion during a busy Alumni Weekend 2009.
Sprinkling their comments with amusing stories, several class members stood up and described their feelings of gratitude for the many opportunities their medical education at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) has provided them.
"It was touching to hear people talk about their favorite memories from 50 years ago," says Karen Peterson, executive director of the Wisconsin Medical Alumni Association (WMAA).
It was the first medical school reunion ever for Daniel Safer, MD '59, a psychiatrist who still works part-time in private practice and part-time as a faculty member at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He was happy to learn the whereabouts of most of his classmates, and thanked Gordon "Gordy" Lang, MD, for his efforts in tracking down so many of them.
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| Minnesota-based Charles Horwitz (left) and Larry Polacheck, of Milwaukee, members of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health class of 1959, exchange memories of 50 years ago. |
"In our time, most people went on to specialize, unlike today," Safer says.
Safer, who worked for the Baltimore County Health Department for 21 years, says he's pleased with the direction the school has gone, combining medicine and public health under one roof.
He and others were impressed with the other developments at the school as well-including the new Wisconsin Institutes for Medical Research (WIMR), where the Dean's Reception was held Thursday evening, the Health Sciences Learning Center and the American Family Children's Hospital, all of which alumni were invited to tour.
Safer also took a jog/walk to Picnic Point.
"It was further than I thought it would be!" he says.
He was surprised to find no outhouses at the end, not that he needed one. But he wanted to re-create an experience he and his girlfriend, who later became his wife, shared there many years ago.
"It started to rain, so we took cover in the outhouses," he recalls. Even though nobody else was around and they could have waited out the weather together, "She went into the women's and I went into the men's. We laughed about it later."
Class of '59ers weren't the only ones who reconnected and shared memories after many years. Seven members of the Class of 1949 also came to campus for their 60th reunion-an impressive turnout.
Among them was Everett Johnson, MD, of Turlock, California, who has attended four class reunions since graduating from the School of Medicine and Public Health and completing an internal medicine residency at UW Hospital, then called Wisconsin General Hospital.
Along with class representative William Semler, MD, Johnson shared news from several classmates who were unable to participate, but with whom he corresponds.
"I was thrilled to see so many of our class members at this reunion," says Johnson, adding that travel has become difficult for some of his fellow octogenarians.
Not so for retired internist and tropical fruit grower Marvin Royce, MD, who traveled from Hawaii for the reunion, nor for Johnson and his wife, Barbara, who have recently traveled throughout South Africa and up the Nile River to Egypt and value opportunities to attend family events in all corners of the United States.
Johnson expressed gratitude for the experiences his medical degree has made possible. Interspersed among his five decades as an internist in Turlock, Johnson also has been a hospital examiner with the California Medical Association and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, and a member of the Medic Alert Foundation board of directors.
He held a community medicine faculty position at Stanford University School of Medicine, training medical students and residents in the highly agricultural San Joaquin Valley surrounding Turlock. He remained in locum tenens practice until 2006.
The classes of 1954, '64 and '79 also held reunions.
The WMAA board of directors met during the weekend as well. Board members heard from Christine Seibert, MD, the School of Medicine and Public Health associate dean of medical education, who outlined the major changes that have been made to all four years of the MD curriculum. And medical student Ben Weston described the Healthy Classrooms Foundation that he and other students have created to incorporate health education into local schools.
The Awards Banquet, of course, was a highlight of the weekend. Adding to the festivities, two award recipients — Harvey Wichman ('65), who won the WMAA Service Award, and Dennis Maki ('67), who won the Medical Alumni Citation Award — had birthdays to celebrate.
Students were also an important part of the weekend. Alumni had a chance to meet with many of them during the Saturday Brunch in the HSLC Atrium.
Johnson and his wife enjoyed visiting with the students as well as other alums and SMPH faculty at the brunch. They also toured the American Family Children's Hospital.
"The new hospital is impressively designed and equipped to care for children," says Johnson, reflecting upon the days when the original, much smaller facility, the Mary Cornelia Bradley Hospital, was the main children's hospital — not many years before he enrolled in medical school here.
Date Published: 09/28/2009
