Two honored for service to alumni association

Two alumni who graduated 10 years apart were honored at reunion this year for their service to the School of Medicine. Daniel L. Arons, M.D. ’67, an instructor at the Harvard Medical School and an attending physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Gilbert F. Hogan, M.D. ’57, a retired New Haven internist and cardiologist, each received the Distinguished Alumni Service Award.

In announcing the awards, Francis R. Coughlin Jr., M.D. ’52, president of the Association of Yale Alumni in Medicine, cited Hogan’s service as past president. Hogan, who celebrated his 45th reunion, was accompanied by 20 members of his immediate family: his wife, five sons, four daughters-in-law and 10 grandchildren. “I do feel a little guilty taking it,” Hogan said of the award. “I didn’t realize I was working. I just thought I was having a lot of fun.”

Coughlin also took note of Arons’ service to the school. “While your medical career is based in Boston,” he said, “you were never too busy or too far away to answer a call from your alma mater. You have been a tireless fund-raiser for the school both as a class agent and as chair of the School of Medicine Alumni Fund.”

Arons credited the Yale System with steering his medical education and, quoting one of his patients, took a humorous swipe at a medical school on the Charles River. “Anybody can go to Harvard,” the patient told him. “You went to Yale. You’re special.”