Class of 1992: 20th Reunion

The School Class of 1992 had its 20th-year reunion in New Haven in June. Those of you who shared your personal email addresses with the medical school’s alumni database also heard e-news immediately before the reunion from classmates around the world in a pleasant storm of emailed updates and greetings.

A brief amble around campus showed a few conspicuous changes at Yale, such as the relocation of the gross anatomy lab to a separate building and an unrecognizably dashing Cross Campus Library. When I saw Ken Rosenzweig at lunch in the Harkness cafeteria, I had a flashback of that infamous Halloween party with Ken as Fred Flintstone. I was relieved to see that he long ago replaced his neolithic costume with a more contemporary and cosmopolitan style. He and Stacey (Berg) live in Englewood, N.J., with their three daughters ages 12, 14, and 16. Stacey practices pediatrics, and Ken is the chair of radiation oncology at Mount Sinai in New York.

Not coincidentally, Stacey is the pediatrician for Tobenna Okezie’s kids. Tobenna, an orthopaedic surgeon, lives with his family in Saddle River, N.J. I wasn’t surprised to learn that his wife is a natural foods chef, based upon his salubrious appearance and attitude. Fellow orthopaedist Chai Kulsakdinun practices in New York at Montefiore, and specializes in foot and ankle surgery. He has two kids, 7 years of age.

John Walsh, present with his wife Vilma Ortiz-Walsh, reported verbatim, “I love sputum,” which to me meant that he is either enjoying his practice of anesthesiology and erudite research at the Mass. General, or that he in fact likes sputum, (or both … I guess). They live in Boston but travel often.

Robin (Perlmutter) and Rich Goldenson, radiologists at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Good Samaritan respectively, came with their three kids, aged 7–11. Robin visits her dad Irving (who is doing well) in New Haven frequently, when not on family adventures such as at Harvard’s museum-of-stuffed-dead-things or on the soccer fields in hometown Wellesley, Mass.

Laura (Drabkin), a busy pediatrician, and David Marks (Class of 1989) have three children, ages 11 to 17, and live in Weston, Conn., but frequent old New Haven as their two boys attend the Hopkins School, Robin’s alma mater. They have fond memories of their courtship in romantic Harkness dorm, which they regularly pass.

Mitch Saltzberg and Karen Antell, who have two boys, recently moved from the Chicago area to Wilmington, Del., and flew in on their private plane piloted by Mitch. In his spare time, and when not violating D.C. airspace, he has been crop-dusting and flying beach-side advertising banners for a new calcium channel blocker. OK, I made that up. Actually, he is medical director of the Heart Failure Program at Christiana Care in Newark, Del. Karen is a pediatrician. I was comforted to hear that their plane actually has a giant parachute.

And yes, it is true. Tom Davenport got married last year after establishing himself as one of few plastic surgeons on Long Island devoted to the treatment of complex wound problems and burn reconstruction. Those free flaps can be impossibly long surgeries. Tom remains indefatigable and positive.

Margie and Scott Kasner were present at our class dinner at Mory’s. As expected, Scott finished his dinner a half-hour before the next earliest dinner-finisher. A professor of neurology, he has been at UPenn for the last 19 or 20 years. “I bang my head against the walls all day every day. Pretty soon I’m going to win.” I happen to think he’s working on a novel, Extracalvarial Shock Wave Neurotherapy, but then again, I am a urologist (practicing outside of Boston and living with wife Emma, an ophthalmologist, and three kids aged 5–9).

Ross Zbar, following his international adventures as a volunteer with Interplast, has settled as a plastic surgeon. He and wife Denise live in New Jersey near his office in Glen Ridge. He sees Evan Fischer frequently who works in Montclaire as a hand surgeon.

Local celebrities Nancy (Dingott) and Mike Girardi also attended the class dinner having recently celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary! They were proud to report five healthy sons with the oldest heading to Brown University in the fall, just like Papa. Nancy devotes herself to the big family, and Mike’s a professor of dermatology and head of the Yale’s residency program in dermatology. I’ll bet it’s a lot of fun at their house, despite the liberal use of sunblock.

We remembered with sadness the loss of our dear classmates Lauren Weinstein, Micky Riggs, Yuly Kipervarg, and Ying Wang. May their lives remind us of our precious and vulnerable human existence and inspire us to care for patients with all the depth of our experience and medical training.

So ends the summary of our classmates who attended the 20th Reunion. If you wish to be included on our class email list and receive periodic personal updates, please send your email address to ayam@yale.edu. And please consider attending our 25th reunion. We missed you this time, and it wasn’t the same without you.