1975 - 30th reunion

Once again, it was quality, not quantity in attendance, that had us all having a good time at new New Haven restaurant L’Orcio for our Saturday dinner. Liz Gawron and Paul Johnson came all the way from California. Paul is an expert diver and scuba instructor as well as an underwater photographer. Brendan Clifford, too, came in from the California beaches, noting he has retired from his surgical career—he will be spending some time this fall with his wife in Massachusetts. Dawn Hassinger came up from Atlanta. Dawn spends her time doing medical writing these days. Vivian Reznik spent several days visiting with me. Besides doing academic pediatrics at the University of California-San Diego, she is researching a book on the beginnings of coeducation at Yale. Vivian and I were especially upset that Barbara Stoll, who has just been named chair of peds at Emory, didn’t make it up for the event—we were hoping we could cause just as much trouble as we used to. The more local contingent was Mark and Sharon Ruchman, coming down from Washington, Conn. Mark is a very active ophthalmologist in Waterbury. And Frank Watkins, who is an orthopaedic surgeon, came up from New Rochelle, and even though his lovely wife is a lawyer, we all had a good time. I have just recently given up obstetrics, only because of the malpractice insurance—and I spend the time I should be delivering babies harassing as many politicians as I possibly can.

We did receive some “regrets” with information. Hymie Milstein is still happily practicing internal medicine at Kaiser in LA—one suggestion is that we should hold a reunion out there, with so many classmates there. Kathy Shepard is taking time off from pediatrics to spend the year in Italy with her husband, the newly retired dean of the Law School at Duquesne University. And George Noble was busy at many family graduations around central Iowa, where he is busy doing peds surgery. Sid Spiesel’s peds practice in New Haven is still very busy, but he couldn’t come to the reunion because his family held a 65th birthday party for him that evening.

However, what I found most gratifying at the reunion was seeing our professors—folks like Dr. Braverman and Dr. Kushlan—having a good time, still practicing and teaching and reassuring me that we all have a lot of time left to have fun. And Vivian and I have a mission for the next reunion—to raise a bundle of money for the reunion fund—more on that in subsequent mailings!

Mary Jane Minkin