Class of 1977: 35th Reunion

Attendees at our 35th-year reunion included Marcia Clark Arem, Wayne Barber, George Bolen, Jesse Cedarbaum, Sybil Duchin, Marybeth Ezaki, Julia Frank, Attilio Granata, Rex Mahnensmith, Margaret Sanderson McKenna, Bob McLellan, Bob Mitchell, Alan Penziner, Ricky Schneider, Gail M. Sullivan, Polly Thomas, Steve Warsof, and Sharon Weinstein. The group celebrated with a dinner at the home of Ronald Vender on the Connecticut shore.

Alan Penziner is still enjoying private practice in hem-onc in his two-person group, and sends this report. “It has been fun watching my wife’s (Paula Marantz Cohen) career progress from academic books to novels (Jane Austen in Boca, Much Ado About Jessie Kaplan, Jane Austen in Scarsdale, What Alice Knew) to public television (The Drexel Interview) to documentary film making (Two Universities and the Future of China). Our son Sam graduated from Yale in 2007 as an English major. After a dispiriting year in Manhattan, mostly unemployed, he decided that he wanted to apply to med school (but had never taken any premed courses!). He went to the post-bac program at Penn and has just finished his first year at NYU med (despite my protests, he refused to apply to Yale because he did not want to spend four more years in New Haven). Our daughter Kate graduated from Yale in 2011 as an American studies major. She has just finished her first year as a high school teacher in rural southern Arkansas via Teach for America. As usual in these desperate school districts, she is teaching science (chemistry, physics, and earth science)! They have her teaching seven classes a day and doing some sports coaching. She is actually enjoying this and has committed to another year (she may even do a third year). She may go to medical school when she is done. Once again thank you and your wife for your generous hospitality. It was great seeing everyone.”

Gail Sullivan is still in Connecticut, and in charge of all geriatric education activities at UConn medical school. “What a lovely oasis, your house was for dinner—thanks again! I took on a new responsibility two years ago as editor-in-chief of a new medical education journal, Journal of Graduate Medicine Education—a lot of work and some fun. My old house is in better shape, (finally have a kitchen!), although it needs a new roof, siding, bathrooms, and a few windows. At least the snow no longer comes in and it’s toasty warm in winter. My two kids are thriving, one in college and one in grad school, and are such good people I am amazed. I am filling my ‘free’ time with swimming, dance, x-country skiing, making costumes—and everything much easier with two new hips. Hello to our class!”

Julia Frank told us that she has finally applied to become a full professor at George Washington University Medical Center, based on editing (and writing for) two books that appeared in 2012 (The Psychotherapy of Hope: The Legacy of Persuasion and Healing, Johns Hopkins Press, and Behavioral Sciences in Health Care, Hofgrefe). “I have also become a blogger for Doctors for America, doing my bit to promote health care reform (even if we have to go through health insurance reform to get there). Since the last reunion, I also fulfilled a lifelong dream and played Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest in community theater. Now appearing in The Sorcerer as a member of the Occupy Ploverleigh! Movement—love levels ALL ranks, even the 99 percent who don’t have perfect pitch!”

Wayne Barber wrote: “First please thank Amy for hosting the reunion at your gorgeous home on the waterfront. It takes a lot for a guy who lives in Oahu to be impressed by ocean views, but sitting on your deck, the Erie Canal would have looked fabulous. Remember, we want photos of your interior when comes time for remodeling. As for the reunion, a quiet joyous meeting of old friends with the common link of having shared the finest medical education the world had to offer at that time and to see the good all of us produced. Some more than others and speaking for the latter, a sense of fulfillment whether in academics, science or in the trenches of front line patient care ... we did our best and fulfilled promises made to ourselves and Yale. Again, thank you for hosting the event, and thanks, Ricky Schneider and company, for carrying through on the details.”