1998 Volume 121 No 1–4 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

Footnotes
Duke University: Businessman, scholar
and dvic leader Robert M. Price, Jr, '52,
recently received the University's 1998
Distinguished Alumni Award. Price is
president and chief executive of PSV, IrK.
»| based in Burr^svilJe, MN. P\/S is
I a consortium of consultants
I specializing in technolog.
* commerdalization, innovation
and assistarKe to business
start-ups. Price is also a member
of the Board of Visitors and an executive-in-residence
at Duke's Fuqua School
of Business.
Iowa State University: The Campaign for
Iowa Gamma—Building the Future, a fundraising
project to help purchase and
renovate their new house, wrais announced
by Campaign Chairman Joel Magruder,
'88, on October 10. Over $200,000 has
already been raised from commitments
by the campaign steering committee.
Knox College: James M. Trapp, '56, of
McDermont Will & Emery was listed as
one of "The Best Trusts and Estate Lawyers
in the \JS.' by Town & Country magazine.
Trapp also serves as a trustee for the
Phi Delta Theta Mitchell Fund.
University of North Dakota: Frederick J.
Derks, '67, has been named executive vice
president chief OF>eration officer, and
director on the Board of MSI Contracting,
Inc., a national rigging contractor headquartered
in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. He
is the founder of Cathcom, Inc. an engineering
and rigging consulting firm in
operation since 1980.
Unhrersity of Wisconsin: Frederick W.
Negus, '43, was initiated Into the University
of Wisconsin's Athletic Hall of Fame
where he played football and baseball.
His honors include: Rrst team All-Big Ten
center, 1942; Most Valuable Player for
football, 1946; member of 1947 college
football All-Star team that
defeated the Chicago Bears,
16-0; played professionally
with Chicago Rockets of Al|
American Football Conference,
1947-1949; played for
Chicago Bears, 1950; Tied AAFC record for
97-yard fumble retumed for touchdown,
1948.
University of Wyoming: Andrew
Azzopardi, '90, has been appointed senior
legal officer at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Malta.
Please send your press releases, photos or other ar>nouncements
to The SaoB so we can indude your news in
the next edition of Phi Footnotes. Please bear in mind that
space may be limited at times.
A STRANGE
The mysten of Edgar Allan Poe's demise
The anomnnous medical file
described the deceased as a "40-
year-old \\ hite male \sTiter traveling
hx)m Richmond to Philadelphia." Dr.
Michael Benitez, Western Maryland 'S2.
an assistant professor of cardiology" at
the Uni\ersit)- of Maryland School of
Medicine in Baltimore, was given the
curious case as an academic exercise—a
medical brainteaser to analwe and detail
his method of diagnosis for a weekly
meeting of facult\" and student interns.
Just beyond the Crayola-colored
model of a heart on his office \\indo\vsilL
he can see the tower of Westminster Hall,
its shadow falling on the grave of Edgar
Allan Poe, a minutes walk away. Benitez
now admits that if he had taken more
Uterature courses in college instead of
concentrating on science, it may have
da^vned on him
that the file in his
hands was Poe s
right off the bat.
He did, however,
realize right a^say
that this one was
not your usual
case. "There was a 1990s medicine.
conspicuous lack
of lab detail: blood
chemistry, C.\T
scan, MRIs. And the medical care was
conspicuously not 1990s medicine.
Something was a little strange."
There's been something a Uttie strange
about Poe's death since the poet and
creator of the short detective story reportedly
uttered a cry and passed into
the great beyond nearly 150 years ago.
Theories aboimd. \\'as he poisoned by
rival writer Rufus Griswold Did an alcohol
binge take its final toll ^\as he
beaten up by election day hoohgans and
left in the gutter to die Or could it have
been mercury poisoning from an elixir
he used to sta\ e off^ bouts with cholera
There was a conspicuous
lack of lab detail: blood
chemisrr}-, C1\T scans,
MRIs. .\nd the medical
care was conspicuously not
Something
was a little strange.
Poe stopped in Baltimore while
travehng from Richmond to Philadelphia
on September 2S, 1849. He had iust
proposed marriage to his childhood
sweetheart in Richmond and intended to
continue on to Philadelphia to wTap up
some business.
Several days later, he was foimd hing
in a Baltimore street delirious and reportedly
in someone elses shabby
clothes.
He \sas taken to the hospital
perspiring heavily, hallucinating and
shouting at imaginary companions, reports
say. He shpped into a coma,
emerged firomit calm and lucid, then
lapsed into another state and died on his
fourth day in the hospital. It has long
been held that Poe died of his love for
the botde. However, reports indicate Poe
had joined a temperance
league six
months before; and
there were no signs
of intoxication
when he arrived at
the hospital, according
to John J.
Moran, Poe's attending
physician.
Unfortimately,
there are no known
medical records in
existence."I can't pull out a yello\\ed paper
with Moran's signature," Benitez said.
The hard, and oft-conflicting facts, are
found in a letter to Poe's doctor written
13 years later.
After a long process of elimination
comparing a list of medical ailments
against the symptoms, Benitez finally
debunked the long-held belief that Poe
died in the gutter, a drimk. Benitez had
another idea. Rabies.
"I have been rebuked for it," he savs,
noting that critics insist rabies and its
pecuhar symptoms would have been rec-
12 THE SCROLL FALL 1998