SUBMISSION FROM JEFF WHITE April 4, 2012
“Getting established in the ‘real world’ would not be an easy task” sayeth James Reston. A challenging career awaited me at the University of Pittsburgh Dental School. It took onesemester for me to decide it wasn’t for me, and I spent the second semester working in nuclear chemistry at Carnegie Tech. (The late Howie Polish (’58) attended Pittsburgh Medical School there, became an internist and had an allergy practice in the Miami, FL. area).
I then married, after seven years of making sure, Liz Houlton. Howie and Brent Revert (also ’58) were in the wedding party. Dave DeSelm (’58) and Steve Chaplin (’58) were unable to participate only because Dave got married the same day. Brent later married Liz’s sister, and now we are brothers-in-law.
That fall, we started across country to Los Angeles for me to attend the University of California Medical School at Irvine. Nine years later I was a boarded radiologist. The Air Force decided my Berry Plan (deferred) service would be served not at Travis Air Force Base (my choice because it was close to skiing in Tahoe) but instead Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines. It was a great experience and an honor to serve in the military and, in late 1974, to bring home (through Clark AFB) the POWs from the Vietnam war.
While at Clark, we hopped on military flights, accompanying a shunt placement (Sidney Poitier’s brother) to a hospital in Florida and then to LA allowed me to interview for a job at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena. There I spent my entire career in general radiology along with specialties in cardiac and women’s radiology, until my retirement following a stroke in March, 2001.
My wife Elizabeth furthered her education with a Ph.D. in psychology which began just before the news of her third pregnancy. Eric, our eldest, graduated in Philosophy from Haverford, and after a two-year training program in Florence, commenced his work as an artist. Doug is a Dartmouth graduate in Psychology and Math. “Animal House” is true. Doug attended UCSF Medical School, and he and his recent bride are finishing this July their Highland Hospital residency in Emergency Medicine. We are now expecting our first grandchild. Ally, our third child, graduated in Sociology from NYU and continued her education with an MA at Cal State in music education. Defying all odds in today’s climate, she is in her second year as music director of a Pasadena private school. In our second family marriage last year, she married a great fellow from New York (Colby graduate), and they reside in Pasadena where he is able to continue his work with a NY firm.
I think my Kenyon colleagues “got established in the real world.” We took that challenge, and I think Kenyon was part of that. Today, I am doing what is normal at this time of life–watching March Madness (and remembering that Cincinnati beat Ohio State two years, 1961 and 1962 for the championship); watching CNBC Squawk Box; and reading “Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival” by a Kenyon writer, Laura Hillenbrand.
I now think about travel vs. taxes and don’t buy green bananas anymore. I attended my 50th high school reunion and said hi to all my millionaire friends who own golf courses, etc. I will be attending my 50th Kenyon reunion, and then my own 50th wedding anniversary will occur on June 22, 2013, either before or after the Israel vs. Iran war. Enough–some younger women need to take over…
Hope this letter finds you in good health and happiness. Anyone can visit us in Pasadena, 626-795-2194.