Download this issue as a PDF - Columbia College - Columbia ...

CLASS NOTES
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
COLUMBIA COLLEGE TODAY
CLASS NOTES
Bill Struning chimes in with this
note: “Will report on my activities
(such as they are) at a later date.
However, I wanted to express my
thanks and appreciation to Henry
Rolf Hecht for his many years as
CC ’44 class correspondent. He
did a great job of gathering and
reporting on what must have been
a relatively small member base
(WWII did not help). CC ’44 was
fortunate to have him representing
us. We also were fortunate to enjoy
the long-term services of Walter
Wager in pre-Hecht years.”
Henry Hecht (“proudly ’44”)
responds as follows: “I’m doing
OK, all things considered. Since being
hit by some sudden weakness
in February 2012, I have difficulty
walking or concentrating while
at my desk, but fortunately no
pain and still reasonably alert. Not
much more to report — family was
planning a belated 90th birthday
celebration for wife Hattie and me
in May; we both turned 90 early
this year. While I had to give up
being class correspondent, I would
still love to hear from remaining
friends at hrh15@columbia.edu.
Best wishes to you all.”
My old Yonkers H.S. buddy,
Wilton Entwistle, tells us he prefers
to be addressed as “Bill” and states:
“Though I never graduated due
to a call from the Army in ’42, the
College has followed me over these
many years. My Army service took
me to Europe in ’44 with the 95th
Infantry Division, 377th Medical
Battalion, and while we were in
Germany I received a wound from
a land mine that qualified me for a
Purple Heart. I continued with the
95th until the division was brought
back to the United States for the
purpose of training for the war with
Japan. But Harry Truman dropped
a couple of A-bombs, and that war
ended while we were still in the
U.S.
“My wife, Aurelia, and I were
married in ’44, and we decided
to move to California, where I
worked with Occidental Life Insurance
Co. (later a part of Transamerica
Life) in its home office (not in
sales) and remained with the company
for 37 years, ending up as an
associate v.p. before resigning at 62
to enjoy retirement. Aurelia and I
have traveled across a large part of
the world but now live a quiet life
in Laguna Woods, Calif., having
resided here for 23 years. We have
three children, six grandchildren
and six great-grands to show for
our production line. Aurelia and I
celebrated 69 years of married life
on March 6 and my 90th birthday
came on March 15. I’m sure most
of our gang is in the same age area
that I am, and several have passed
on. But all of us must face that
eventuality. So, go with God, old
friend. I send you my best wishes.
With Robert Browning, I quote,
‘Grow old along with me! The best
is yet to be,/The last of life, for
which the first was made ...’”
My Beta Sigma Rho fraternity
brother Dick Farber writes, “After
enough years of working in technical
electronic activities, I retired
and have been leading a pleasant
life. My wife and I have three children,
seven grandchildren and, as
of a little less than two years ago,
our first great-grandchild. We had
the second wedding in the family
earlier this month in Akumal,
Mexico (about 1½ hours south of
Cancun). We will have our third
family wedding in June. My sons,
Martin ’71 and Andrew ’75, and
one grandson (Martin’s son Aaron
’05, the one who just got married)
went to Columbia and are doing
well. My wife and I are slowing
down in activities but what do you
expect from older age Stay well.”
Finally, we note with sadness
the passing of Gordon Cotler,
Robert A. Fishman, Richard Bader
and Robert L. Rosenthal.
45
Enoch Callaway
87 Barbaree Way
Tiburon, CA 94920-2223
enoch.callaway@ucsf.edu
This will be my last set of Class
Notes, as my short-term memory
is beginning to cause troubles. I’ve
been asked to say a little something
as a sign-off, so allow me to recount
a bit about myself. As a professor
in the Department of Psychiatry, I
left UCSF in 1965 to go to the San
Francisco VA Medical Center for
a variety of reasons and retired
from the VA at 70. I did volunteer
work for a while, until I discovered
that there were interesting, paying
jobs for psychiatrists with an outfit
called Traditions Behavioral Health.
I worked for them for some years,
until I began having strokes. Then
I discovered I had severe aortic stenosis.
Fortunately I was able to get
into a protocol at Stanford, where
they were evaluating percutaneous
valve replacements. My new cow
valve functions almost perfectly.
Unfortunately, I developed an
infection that was a marker for
colon cancer and ended up with a
hemi-colectomy. After all that, and
because of persisting short-term
memory problems, I gave up the
practice of medicine.
Then Dorothy, my wife of 56
years, died of a glioblastoma. Since
then I’ve been living with a widow
named Dot Potter who had been
a close friend of both Dorothy’s
and mine since around 1956. I’ve
published a memoir (Asylum: A
Mid-Century Madhouse and Its Lessons
about Our Mentally Ill Today), a
novel (The Mating Flower: A Botanical
Murder Mystery) and moved out
of the big house into an apartment
on the water. There I read, play the
recorder with a ‘consort,’ kayak,
and in general lead the good Northern
California life. That I do, despite
a painless neuropathy of my right
leg, which requires me to use a cane
or walker.
It is with some reluctance that I
turn this over to a successor. I hope
someone steps forward, and that
he enjoys it as much as I have.
[Editor’s note: CCT thanks Enoch
Callaway for his service as class
correspondent. Any CC ’45-er who
is interested in helming this column
should contact CCT Managing
Editor Alexis Tonti ’11 Arts at 212-
851-7485 or alt2129@columbia.edu.
In the meantime, please share news
on your life, career and family as
well as thoughts on or memories
from your College days with CCT.
Please mail to Columbia College Today,
Columbia Alumni Center, 622
W. 113th St., MC 4530, New York,
NY 10025; call 212-851-7852; email
cct@columbia.edu; or use CCT’s
webform: college.columbia.edu/
cct/submit_class_note.]
Dr. Chester Semel ’48 P&S
interned at Mount Sinai, did a year
of surgical residency at Duke and
then finished his surgical training
at the Staten Island United States
Public Health Service Hospital.
After his residency, he remained
in the U.S. Public Health Service
system for about four years, as
assistant chief of surgery at Staten
Island and deputy chief of surgery
at Baltimore. Prior to Staten Island,
he took two-plus years off to work
on an Indian reservation in the
north of Washington State with
his new wife. There he had many
interesting experiences.
Chester and his wife later moved
to Beverly Hills, where he began
his private practice of surgery. They
were happy there, and for 51 years
he was the surgeon for the USC
football team and went to all of
their games. He and his wife both
learned to fly a plane and took
many trips together. One took them
to Mexico, where the plane broke
down. They had to fly home commercially,
since they didn’t have
enough money for the repairs.
The Rev. Clarence Sickles was for
many years the CCT class correspondent,
so I thought he would be an
appropriate subject for my terminal
Class Notes. When I called, I found
him living with his wife, Jean, at 68
Heath Village, Hackettstown, NJ
07840. We had a long talk, which
(given my failing memory) he kindly
supplemented with additional notes
and press clippings, which reflect 93
years of life well spent.
Clarence was president of his
high school graduating class in
New Jersey, a member of the honor
society and a member of the cross
country team that won the state
championship. He entered Rutgers
in 1941, made the varsity track team
and won a letter. When the Army
took over the Rutgers campus in
1943, he transferred to the College,
where he was on the varsity twomile
relay team. After graduation,
he entered General Theological
Seminary, graduated with a master’s
of divinity in ’48 and was
ordained an Episcopal priest. After
serving several parishes, in 1951
Clarence became the first chaplain
to Episcopal students at Rutgers.
From 1953–65, he served as vicar
of St. James’ Episcopal Church in
Hackettstown.
In 1962, Clarence formed the
Heath Village corporation, which
built the Heath Village Retirement
Community, where he and Jean
now live. This was originally an
affordable retirement community
with four levels of care: independent
living (like an apartment);
hotel (cleaning service and meals);
assisted living; and full nursing
care. He was an executive director
until 1978 and he and Jean became
licensed nursing home administrators;
he also earned a master’s of
education in gerontology from
Teachers College.
I could go on but to summarize:
Clarence and Jean have eight
children and one foster child. He
received a humanitarian award
from the Hackettstown Chamber
of Commerce, periodically is track
and field official for high schools
and colleges, was twice a candidate
for State Senate, chaplain of the
Hackettstown first aid and rescue
squad, chaplain of the Hackettstown
fire department, treasurer
of the National Interfaith Coalition
on Aging, founder of the Episcopal
Society for the Ministry on Aging,
lecturer in gerontology at Centenary
College in Hackettstown and
an occasional substitute teacher at
various locations. He also serves
Rutgers in various capacities.
Finally, he and Jean are certified
graphologists, graduates of Felician
College (Lodi, N.J.) and do
handwriting analysis as a hobby.
And, oh yes, he was awarded an
honorary doctor of divinity degree
by his theological seminary. I’m
sure I still missed something!
Clarence has been so-called
retired for some time but, predictably,
has not been idle. He recently
completed a book, The New Ten
Commandments, which follows the
development and changes of Moses’
laws from the 15th century to
date. He said that those interested
in reading it should send him a
letter at the address mentioned
earlier in the column. He sent me
one and I’ve read half already, and
can highly recommend it.
Henry Shinefield ’48 P&S has
had a fascinating career. My telephone
notes were incomplete and
poorly supplemented by my failing
memory, so I asked him for an email
repeat. Here it is (with some editing).
“Your phone call took me back
to September 1941, Hamilton Hall,
my first Columbia freshman class
with Lionel Trilling ’25, ’38 GSAS.
There was Enoch Callaway, in a
light blue freshman beanie, in row
one, first seat, ready to participate
in a phenomenal Columbia
program called Contemporary
Civilization and Humanities education
— a program for all entering
students, regardless of their major,
a program that was just eight years
old at the time.
“I am 89 and enjoying my retirement,
here in New York City, with
the company of my magnificent
wife, Jacqueline, daughters, Kim
and Melissa, their husbands and
eight grandchildren ages 3–16. We
miss, because of infrequent visits to
Los Angeles, our third daughter, Jill,
her husband and the ninth grandchild,
Shane (5).
“My retirement comes after having
the pleasure and excitement
of a 64-year span with rewarding
involvement in a variety of
disciplines in the field of pediatric
health and medical care.
After completing my third year
of pediatric residency at Weill
Cornell Medical Center, in 1951,
I entered and spent two years in
the U.S. Public Health Service as
a member of the Communicable
Disease Center’s [now Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention]
first Epidemic Intelligence Service
officer class. That experience began
with eight weeks of training and
resulted in being ‘knighted’ as an
epidemiologist and rewarded with
an assignment for two years with
the California State Health Department
and Laboratories in Berkeley.
“A major portion of my time was
involvement with a serious epidemic
of Western equine encephalitis
both clinically and in the laboratory.
There also was an investigation of a
polio epidemic in the Berkeley Hills
as well as an eye-opening experience
when I was sent to Harlan
County, Ky., to investigate a severe
outbreak of hepatitis.
“The assignment in California
was notable not only for the public
health experiences but also because
it led to my introduction to a medical
practice in which I would ultimately
spend 40 exciting years of
my medical life. I had heard about a
method of delivery of medical care
based on a prepaid system rather
than a fee-for-service system that
was being carried out by a fledging
organization called the Kaiser Permanente
(KP) Health Plan. Created
by Henry Kaiser during WWII for
his shipyard employees, it was
now offered to the public. Its major
hospital was in Oakland, Calif.,
with a small outpatient clinic above
a drug store on a main street in San
Francisco.
“I visited Dr. John ‘Jack’ Smillie
(chief of a staff of two pediatricians)
and asked whether I could help
during my time off, so I could understand
the program. He agreed,
and my resulting experience led me
to believe that the future of health
care lay in some similar system. Patients
would pay a defined fee for a
defined period of time for complete
health and medical care. The physicians
are paid a defined salary and
the result would be the delivery of
first-class, cost-controlled care. This
program now cares for approximately
one-third of the 30,000,000
people in California and has
multiple programs throughout the
United States.
“Dr. Smillie asked if I would like
to join him on completion of my
public health service. I said I would,
if I hadn’t promised to join my older
brother (my role model and father
figure) in his busy Paterson, N.J.,
pediatric practice. ... So off I went
to New Jersey in July 1953, where I
spent six years in a busy, outstanding,
fee-for-service, private pediatric
practice. However, there were
laboratory follow-ups from my
California experience that I wanted
to complete. So with considerable
regret, I told my brother that I had
to leave the practice.
“I found a friend and former
colleague, Dr. Heinz Eichenwald,
who offered me a job in the infectious
disease department at the
Weill Cornell Medical College. It
turned into six years of excitement
and discovery with an opportunity
to see and understand the internals
of academic medicine with its positives
and foibles.
“My time at Cornell was devoted
to teaching patient care and investigative
laboratory work. A major
portion of the latter involved combating
my favorite bacterial enemy,
the staphylococcus, particularly
studying how it created problems in
the nursery. Then, this bacteria was
producing a worldwide epidemic
both in hospitals and communities,
and in particular with newborns,
who became infected (colonized)
with the staphylococcus. Infants
would go home without disease
only to return in two to six weeks
with severe lung, brain, blood or
skin disease, which often became
widespread through households.
“No antibiotics, aseptic or antiseptic
techniques were effective in
stopping the epidemic. However,
we found that if we placed a small
amount of a staphylococcal strain
of low virulence in the nose and
umbilicus of the infants we could
prevent serious staphylococcal disease.
Not only was the epidemic at
the Cornell nursery stopped with
this approach, but so, too, were
severe nursery outbreaks in other
parts of the United States.
“During the 12 years I left the
West Coast, I stayed in touch with
Dr. Smillie in San Francisco. In
1964, he informed me that he was
now in charge of the entire San
Francisco KP program and offered
me the chief of pediatrics position,
which I accepted. Leaving New
York in July 1965, I began 40 years
of involvement in active pediatrics.
“For 25 years at KP, I was in
charge of the clinical practice of a
staff of 15 pediatricians, consolidated
a first-class pediatric
residency program and continued
my staphylococcal research. Most
importantly, in my final 20 years
at San Francisco KP, I founded and
co-directed the Kaiser Permanente
Vaccine Study Center, a center
that is arguably one of the finest, if
not the best, in the world. With a
large defined patient population, a
sophisticated computerized patient
information system and a skilled
data analytic team, we did largescale
Phase 3 patient studies that
led to approval for a number of
Dr. Henry Shinefield ’45, ’48 P&S is 89 and enjoying
retirement in New York City.
critically important vaccines. These
vaccines are currently recommended
for routine administration
to infants, children, adolescents
and some adults in the U.S. and
throughout the world.
“There is a brief summary of my
diverse pediatric life, an experience
across 64 years that includes time
in public health, fee for service
pediatrics, academic pediatrics
and last, longest and probably
most important, prepaid pediatric
practice and vaccinology. All
diverse, interesting and instructive.
For me, a fascinating continuum in
excitement.”
The following updates are carried
over from the Spring issue,
having not been printed due to a
production error:
Howard B. Henderson ’51 Arch.
was in the yard raking leaves and
generally tidying up after Hurricane
Sandy when his wife called him to
the phone to take my call. Obviously,
he remains in good shape.
As happened to many in our
class, Howard’s college days were
interrupted by the war and he
returned to get a degree from the
Architecture School. He has been
retired for about 10 years and lives
in Greenwich, Conn., though he
occasionally still goes to the drafting
table which, he commented, is
now an archaic artifact (he says the
current generation does everything
on computers, and even uses them
to take examinations). Howard
was a sailor until about 10 years
ago but has given up the pastime.
He also confessed to a love of
travel and takes a trip abroad on almost
an annual basis, though now
he finds it can be a bit onerous.
Frank Herman ’45E, ’49E, ’53
GSAS went into the service after
graduation. Following two years in
the Navy, he returned and earned
both a master’s and a Ph.D. in
physics from Columbia. He spent
most of his career working on
the theoretical physics of semiconductors
at the IBM Center in
San Jose, Calif. However, for the
last 10 years he has been retired.
Frank’s health remains good and
his only physical exercises are
long walks. He reads extensively,
remains fascinated with his field of
theoretical physics, attends lectures
at Stanford and sometimes teaches
there, too. Lately, his principal occupation
has been finishing a book
on the theory of semiconductors.
Dr. Samuel Hemley had just
returned to his home in Snowmass,
Colo., when I called. Snowmass is
around 9,000 feet in altitude, and
we chatted a bit about President
Barack Obama ’83’s poor showing
in the first presidential debate in
Denver, speculating as to whether
some incompetent physician had
failed to make him take precautions
due to the altitude. Sam then
kindly offered to speak with me
more the next day, so I called again
and we had a long chat. With the
short-term memory of the typical
88-year-old, I hope that I do justice
to all that we discussed.
Sam recalled growing up in
Brooklyn, where he lived with his
uncle, who was a state Supreme
Court judge. He attended Boys and
Girls H.S., which at the time was
just Boys H.S., and had excellent
grades and fine recommendations.
He wanted to go to Cornell but
was turned down. The head of his
high school was distressed by this
and, on inquiry, found that Sam fell
outside of a quota that the college
had. The young Hemley then was
sent to talk to Columbia College
Dean Herbert Hawkes, who said
he should go to Columbia and suggested
that he take the admission
tests. That he did and, at 15, was
admitted to the freshman class.
Sam lived in Livingston [now
SUMMER 2013
68
SUMMER 2013
69