1955 - 50th reunion

There are by our last count 60 living members of our class. A total of 30 were able to attend the reunion for at least one day, and most for three days. Leo Cardillo, who is still in practice, was able to come for only a short time on Friday, but his presence brought our total attendance to 50 percent. Alan Stone was only able to come for Saturday, but also was a welcome face. (He still looks like he did 50 years ago.)

The committee had made a number of phone calls to members who had not responded to the initial letters. It was really nice to talk to them, but unfortunately the reasons for not coming were usually because of illness of the classmate or spouse. Some were quite ill, but as physicians, we would expect this in a group of people in their 70s. What was encouraging was the general overall health of our group. Almost everyone is retired and finding many interesting and productive pursuits to keep them busy.

The week after the reunion, I went to Atlanta for another event, and was able to have lunch with Roger Lester, who could not come to the reunion because of another commitment. He is doing some scholarly work in history and philosophy, and was giving some lectures the weekend of the reunion. He will be at the 55th.

Again, one of our classmates was honored; Shep Nuland received the Distinguished Alumni Service Award. As usual, he was gracious and articulate in his acceptance speech.

We were fortunate in having our oldest classmate, Pat Costa, attending as well as our youngest, Guy McKhann. Harry Kendall and Sandy Zuckerbraun traveled from distant California with Wanda and Ruth to attend. Sandy is still in practice and because he sees many Mexican-Americans, he has become fluent in Spanish. You see, you can teach an old horse new tricks.

Frank Johnson is retired, but still lives in the vast outreaches of Montana. Milt Corn was in from Bethesda, Md., where he is active in what seems like an important but somewhat confusing project at the NIH. I’m sure with his involvement it is important.

Jim Garlington is now working on a project to collect digital pictures from the reunion and also some from people who could not attend. He is going to put them on a CD and send it to all class members. I thought it was a great idea, and he is to be congratulated for this work. See you at the 55th.

Jack Landau