|
Letter to Harvey Sparks
Jay Tepperman writes: “This is our fourth annual report from scenic
downtown Oakland. We feel 4 ½ years older than we did when we moved here but we
are still more or less vertical most of the time. The rhythm of our lives goes
on from day to day at a Tai Chi pace. Since few of the nation’s and the world’s
problems seem to have tidy solutions we find our consolations in our family and
in our rich memories of 64 years of loving partnership.
“One of the most memorable events of the year was the occasion of my sister
Evelyn’s 100th birthday celebration. Three generations of her progeny and many
relatives, including cousins from Canada and friends from the East Coast, came
to show their love and admiration. The floor show included the ultimate
photograph album, a Power Point slide show that started in the late 19th
century.
“Our family continues to be our main source of pleasure. Each of the boomers and
generation Xers has distinguished him/herself in different, but equally
admirable, ways. Jean continues as Executive Director of a non-profit Action
Alliance for Children and editor of their publication, The Children’s Advocate.
We especially enjoy her weekly lunch visits in our apartment. Kathy is a senior
Professor in the University of Cincinnati’s large biology department. We are
delighted by her frequent West Coast visits and were very happy that we were
able to visit her at Thanksgiving time with the help of Jim and Jean. Jim and
his lab mates are going through an especially stressful time because Peter
Quail, their eminent Chief, is seriously ill. Jim is keeping the lab together
and maintaining communication between the team members and Peter, who is
recuperating from a difficult operation.
“We can get tiresome on the subject of our grandchildren. Carolyn Norr has been
very successful in a curriculum enrichment program for inner city schools
sponsored by a private foundation. She teaches art and creative writing in
several 7th grade classes of poor Oakland schools. Sarah Norr is working as a
counselor to unorganized hotel workers. Elizabeth Elder received a PhD in
mathematics from Stanford last June. She was awarded a five year fellowship by
the American Mathematic Institute, the first woman and the first west coast
graduate student to win the fellowship. She and her fellow mathematician
husband, Mark Meckes, will be professors at Case Western Reserve University in
the fall of 2007. Sarah Elder has been commended for innovative teaching in the
Teach for America program in Philadelphia school. Sam, after clerking for two
years for Federal judges in Philadelphia, has just been awarded a fellowship to
work for a public interest law firm in Oakland starting next September.
“Please forgive our emphasis on our private concerns. The ‘big picture’ is too
discouraging to contemplate.”
Letters to Beverly Bishop
Karl Wasserman writes: “Thank
you for the birthday greetings. The 10 years between my 70th and 80th birthdays
went fast. I am still Professor Emeritus on Recall at the UCLA School of
Medicine located on the Harbor-UCLA campus. While our research entity has
changed its name from Research and Education Institute to Los Angeles Biomedical
Research Institute of Harbor- UCLA of the David Geffen School of Medicine of
UCLA, I am physically in the same place that I was 10 years ago. I still go into
my office every weekday, do research, write, edit, teach and occasionally
consult on patients with special problems, usually related to exercise
intolerance.
“With respect to research, I have two advanced post-doctoral research Fellows
and I am mentor for the NIH K 23 award of one of our young cardiologists.
Fortunately, I have the help of my long-time colleague, Dr. James Hansen, who
has helped me interact with research Fellows in these activities, during the
past decade. Our focus in this research has been the physiology and
pathophysiology of exercise, and pulmonary function testing. This has led to a
number of publications that have focused on the exercise pathophysiology of
pulmonary hypertension, heart failure and lung diseases, in addition to
physiological responses in normal subjects and changes with aging. In addition,
I am PI on two contracts (through the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute)
for the purpose of serving as the core laboratory for studies on left
ventricular failure and coronary artery disease. I have been fortunate in having
had good research Fellows on a continuing basis during my career. They have been
essential to my research productivity.
“I have retained good contact with former research Fellows. Thus I continue to
collaborate with some of them in their research at their home institution. In
addition, for purposes of teaching abroad, I have been responsible for three-day
post-graduate courses on principles of exercise physiology, testing and
interpretation, over the past 12 to 15 years. Thus with my Japanese colleagues,
we shall give the 11th course in Japan (Tokyo) in July, 2007 and, with my
European colleagues, the 11th course in Europe (Rome), in October, 2007. We have
been giving the same course twice a year for the last 25 years with my Division
colleagues at Harbor-UCLA.
“I suppose that the reason that I am still doing what I have been doing for many
years is two-fold. First, physiology has been my hobby, not my labor. Second, I
am still asked on an almost daily basis to write, edit, research or teach. This
is gratifying.
“While I do start out early in the morning, as always, I go home earlier than
before and try to spend more time with my wife of 54 years, who has been my
guiding inspiration. We also look forward to visits with our children and
grandchildren. You asked me if I have words of wisdom to pass on to younger
physiologists. My advice is to do what you love and love what you do. And most
importantly, enjoy those wonderful opportunities to be with family. Life goes by
too fast to do otherwise.”
Max Harry Weil writes: “I was pleased and grateful to receive your letter
of February 9, 2007 and it is my privilege to attach a copy of my Curriculum
Vitae and a copy of the newspaper insert called ‘Healthy Heart’ which appeared
only today in the local paper, namely ‘The Desert Sun.’
“With respect to the specific questions that you posed, yes, I am continuing
with scientific activity and writing and most especially working with the
postdoctoral fellows in our Institute. I have never been able to distinguish
between presumed labor working and the love for what I do, including now that I
have shed administrative responsibilities.
“In planning, as suggested by you, my intent is to leave correspondence,
unpublished writings and archival materials in the library of the Institute for
either or both reference and disposition by those who succeed me.
“Thank you very much for writing and for your birthday wishes.”
John Schlag writes: “Thank you for your inquiry. I retired at the age of
78. Since then, with disguised apprehension, many colleagues have asked me how I
was taking it? I did retire because I no longer had the patience of writing
applications for research and for animal permit. My main NIH grant was 40 years
old and, up to the last day, I recorded unit activity in neurophysiological
experiments. After that, of course, there are still papers to complete, reviews
to write, manuscripts to referee but, let us be frank, together, they are not
fulfilling activities. My research field has always been competitive and, as my
colleagues did, I enjoyed it. As I no longer have the means to test an idea as
it emerges, I am somewhat losing interest in my own field. Too long, I have been
a research activist. But I have a lot of interest in physics, history and
economics and no ambition to contribute anything there, and I have a passion
(outrage) for politics. So I am not at all unhappy. I started my career in
Europe. If I had pursued it there, I would have been force-retired 15 years ago.
So, why would I complain?”
Letters to Virendra Mahesh
Tom Hoshiko writes: “Thanks for your greetings and inquiry of what I am
doing in my 80th year! I am well and enjoying life with family in rural Ohio
although a small stroke has affected short term memory.”
I. I. Hirsch writes: “It was a delightful surprise to receive your
birthday greeting on behalf of the APS on the occasion of my 80th birthday. I
am reminded, as I remember it, on my 70th I received a birthday greeting from
the APS, however the birth year was mixed up and the greeting was for my 80th
birthday. I responded at that time indicating that I had not yet reached the
“Geezer” stage. I informed the note writer, whose name I do not recall except he
was an old acquaintance, that in order to reach the “Geezer” stage one had to
pass through the “Codger” Stage -age 70, the “Old Codger stage - age 75 and
finally the “Geezer” stage - age 80. I was informed of these stages by my
grandson who is now a junior at Indiana University. He recently sent me an Email
informing of my advancement. I do not know if there is a stage for 90 year
olds, but I hope to find out in 10 years.
“As to my activity of late: this past summer I removed myself as a reviewer for
the International Journal of CV Research and for Chest. However, I still play
tennis three times a week, continue my long distance bicycle rides - (50-60
miles weather permitting) and hope to do a Century ride this fall. The last time
I did a Century was in 2002.
“In addition I carry on my continuing education courses for retirees, which I
began at Northwestern University and now at National Lewis University. I am a
co-coordinator of a seminar type course on ‘International Relations’ in which
students present an oral report each week on a specific area of a important
current world events.
“I am also vicariously involved in my grandchildren’s educational endeavors, two
of whom are in college, and one who will be entering 6th grade in the fall.
“And that is how I spend my time now in addition to caring for my wife who has
Parkinson’s.
“With best regards to my American Physiological Society colleagues who are still
around from our early days.”
Béla Halász writes: “Thank you very much for your kind letter and for the
greetings.
“Concerning my current activities I am pleased to give you the following
information.
“Of course, I am retired, emeritus professor. Give a few lectures for graduate
students and I am still active in research, working in the Neuromorphological
and Neuroen-docrine Research Laboratory supported by the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences and the Semmelweis University. The main interest of my group is the
structural organization and functional significance of the glutamatergic
innervation of the hypothalamus with special emphasis on the neuroendocrine
aspects. My group regularly publishes papers. I am member of editorial boards of
journals and review manuscripts for international journals. I am active member
of some committees of the Semmelweis University, Budapest and of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences.
“I am very grateful for the publications of the APS which I receive regularly
and read. After having read them, I always pass on them to the members of the
Department of Physiology of our University. They are very happy to get them and
to have the chance to read the excellent articles dealing with actual research
or with teaching physiology.”
Kenneth M. Hanson writes: “I recently, with great pleasure, celebrated my
80th birthday. My wife, Sue, arranged a wonderful party. There were many
visiting children and grandchildren.
“Since my retirement in 1992 from the Physiology department at the Ohio State
University, I have managed to remain quite active. I continued to work for
several years as a consultant to the Gastrointestinal Physiology Laboratory at
Grant Medical Center in Columbus, OH. The work consisted largely of studies on
esophageal and biliary motility. Ironically, during this time I developed
Barrett’s esophagus, which, fortunately, has been well controlled with
treatment. In spite of having this, as well as rheumatoid arthritis, I am
feeling quite well and have been able to enjoy my years of senior status very
much indeed. A group of retired faculty and staff from the Ohio State University
Physiology Department gets together for lunch on a regular basis. We love to
reminisce over happenings of past times. The conversation can be saddened when
the passing of a friend or former colleague is noted. One subject that comes up
from time to time is the seeming demise of Physiology as we knew it and the
appearance of a new discipline, alien to us, but still physiology. Physiology of
the new age, maybe.
“My wife and I enjoy entertainment, fine dining and travel. We have done the
latter quite extensively. I have visited all seven continents. My wife six. Our
favorites, so far, an Amazon cruise from the mouth to Iquitos, Peru, and
recently Antarctica. As for other hobbies, I do photography and I am learning
the digital way; maintain three aquariums and have a large collection of sea
shells from around the world.
“Currently, I am looking forward to the coming of spring, and April trip to
Easter Europe, and, of course, many more birthdays.”
Robert L. Hazelwood writes: “Thank you so much for your recent letter
alerting me to the fact tat I have outlived both my parents and as such,
continue to engage in competitive sports, gardening, philately, and interact
with faculty colleagues on an international level. Your letter arrived here in
Texas while I was in Thailand lecturing to Medical Students, a pleasant task
that I have been doing on a pro bono basis for 22 years. Thus, the delay in
answering your kind letter.
“I have now been retired roughly 10 years from my Chair position at the
Univeristy of Houston. We looked for a spot to retire in the Bay Area of
northern California where my family has resided for over many generations, but
found the financial considerations more than we could comfortably handle, and so
returned to Texas and settled in a nice, historically quiet town of Georgetown,
about 30 miles north of Austin. Giving up the lab and working with my graduate
students was the hardest thing for me to adjust to, but the opportunities
presented to us in this Del-Webb retirement community were innumerable and
challenging, indeed. It took our Springer Spaniel about two days to adjust to
retirement life away from the big cities of our professional past as San
Francisco, Boston, and Houston.
“Barbara has continued her intense interest in teaching Scottish Country
dancing, as well as participating in clogging, and tap dancing/performing, and
has widened her interest in performance by joining the local Theatre Group,
where she acts, directs backstage, and play directs local talent in all types of
theatrical performances. She is professional in all aspects of endeavor and is
in constant demand to lend her talents to various organizations.
“As for myself, I found not having day-to-day contact with physiologically
oriented colleagues difficult to adjust to, compounding the problem of having no
close-by University and library to keep me up to date in events of interest.
Despite the fact I still subscribe to a number of journals (not an easy task in
these days of escalated subscription prices), the explosion of new knowledge,
combined with the evolution of a new form of scientific language, make it
extremely difficult to stay abreast of things in my arena of interest. Of
particular interest has been the developments following our co-discovery of the
pancreatic polypeptide (PP) family with Joe Kimmel of the University of Kansas
Medical School in the early 1970s. We were the first to establish its
involvement with feeding behavior and GI physiology, receptor characteristics
identified, and CNS actions strongly suggested. All of this laid groundwork for
the explosion of work (initiated by Mutt and co-workers) involving NPY that
followed.
“Fortunately, I still have some contact with many of my past Graduate Students
who have gone on to accomplish much in the field. I only hope that I gave them
the same clear insight to their work as I received from my mentors in various
stages of my career, namely, Leslie Bennett, Max Klieber, and Piero Foa. These
three were true scholars and genuine leaders, each in their own manner, and
taught me the fun inherent in Physiology.
“On a daily basis, I still pursue my gardening interest, where I have won
several ‘Garden of the Month’ awards in competition with 1,100 other residents.
I also work two 6 x 25 foot garden plots in an horticultural acreage set aside
for residents, growing most of our own vegetables and giving the surplus to the
local food bank. My interest in Philately continues, and I have been successful
in competitive events of exhibiting at local, regional and national levels. My
specialty is Hong Kong and Thailand. And I play bocce ball almost daily with
other senior citizens.
“I found early that my real void in activities here was a lack of sharing my
enthusiasm for Physiology, especially with students and colleagues. So, I
approached the retirement community’s leaders with the suggestion that I be
allowed to give a series of lectures on health-related topics; no tests, no
grades, just mental satisfaction and fulfillment to fit in with the expanding
series of physical activities already in place. My suggestion was listened to
and politely and quietly dismissed as ‘being too naïve.’ Strangely, 12 months
later a ‘Senior University’ was incorporated and affiliated with our local
Southwestern University, and we now have over 600 senior residents enrolled in a
large variety of six-week courses, ranging from Hayden’s music to ‘That
Wonderful Machine: The Human Body.’ The latter is taught by yours truly in
conjunction with a former Dean at Kansas University Medical School, Bob Manning.
We cover such topics as Pain, Sleep, Sensory Perception, The Body’s Response to
Heart Attacks, Obesity, Diabetes, Food Intake, etc. The University of Texas at
Austin calls upon us from time to time to give similar lectures in their SAGE
program.
“Fortunately, I have been successful in continuing my overseas contacts that
were originally made through Fulbright Scholarship and Sabbatical leaves. For
the last 22 years I have been a Visiting Professor in Physiology and
Endocrinology at Chiang Mai Medical School in northern Thailand. I lecture to
third year medical students (in a six year medical course), assist in the labs
and Clinical Presentations, and aid the Graduate Student program as well, I find
it very rewarding in all aspects, as the Thais are very courteous, gentle and
gracious people, and they enjoy life; they love to smile and laugh. They are
very appreciative of my (and other visiting persons) efforts, poorly spoken Thai
that I have.
“While there in the Department of Physiology, I saw again what I have found all
over Thailand, and that is a serious lack of educational materials available to
the student to use during their course of study. Current texts are a notable
example. Therefore, a number of years back, I enlisted the Dean’s assistance in
establishing a departmental library, a library embracing all aspects of
biological, organismic Physiology which was as current as possible. Ours is the
only basic science departmental library in the entire medical school! And we
find that most other departments are frequent users of its resources, as it
contains tomes of not only standard Physiology texts, but also those of Anatomy
(including Netter’s classics), Biochemistry, Endocrinology, Pharamacology,
Pathology, Genetics, Immunology, Nutrition, Neuroscience, Cell Biology, etc. I
have been successful in furnishing the library with four up-to-date computers,
four carrels for study and thesis writing, a 14-foot teakwood conference table,
and my own personal Physiology library, which is updated every other year. Five
series of Annual Reviews are present, also, including one (Physiology) dating
yearly back to the 1956 volume. Each text is barcoded and recently via mainline
the operation was ‘digitalized.’
“So, retirement for me has been fun, fruitful, and challenging. I sincerely hope
that my former Graduate Students have found their work as such, as most of them
are on the so-called ‘cutting edge’ of their fields and are making contributions
far greater in significance than when in my laboratory. Physiology gave me
unusually gifted students; I gave them an opportunity, and a little guidance.
“It is time for me to close this epistle. I do so with an apology for my tardy
reply (noted above) and a hope that I haven’t rambled too much. I also hope that
when you write again to me 80 years from now, that you, too, will find
retirement full of as much fun and rewards as we both have found in Physiology.
Take care!”
Letter to Donald Marsh
NR Brewer writes: “Since a copy of your letter intended for physiologists
born in 1906 was also sent to me (born in 1904), and since it was the first time
I have received such a letter, and since your letter indicated you would like to
know what elder physiologists do (and so would I)…….I just received a copy of
the Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science in which
appeared an article under my name that indicates what I have been doing most of
my life.”
Letter to Julio Cruz
Neena Schwartz writes: “So, what is this “Senior Physiologist” doing
these days? I still have a small office in the Department of Neurobiology and
Physiology, on the Evanston campus of Northwestern University in Evanston. I
closed my lab in 1998, having decided five years before, when I received my last
five-year R01 from NIH, that I was not going to apply again. I have now also
retired from my position as Director of our Center for Reproductive Science, a
bicampus endeavor between the Medical School in Chicago and the College of Arts
and Science in Evanston.
“I have continued to serve locally and nationally on several advisory committees
for multidisciplinary research grants. Occasionally someone even takes my
advice! I represented the Endocrine Society for several years on the FASEB
Women’s Excellence in Science Award committee. I am presently chairing a
committee for the Endocrine Society- the History Committee, which is focused
currently on building a library specializing in the history of Endocrinology. We
have received a major collection of books and papers from the wife of the late
Clark Sawin, who was a great collector of endocrinological history memorabilia.
It looks as though a number of societies are nurturing their collective memories
before we seniors all disappear. The Society for the Study of Reproduction has
begun video taping interviews with its past presidents.
“Traveling has been a great pleasure, especially where I can see animals and
birds. I have been to the Galapagos, and Macchu Picchu, and also Patagonia in
Argentina and Chile. Costa Rica was a birding paradise, and in this country I
have birded in Alaska, along the Platte River in Nebraska and in Yellowstone and
the Tetons.
“But much of my time has been spent in writing a kind of memoir. My life as a
physiologist overlapped with the feminist movement in the sciences. A lot of my
efforts have gone into this, and I wanted to tell this story, as well as write
about the joys (and frustrations) of doing research and administration. Not only
did I serve as first President of The Association of Women in Science, but I
helped start Women in Endocrinology, a focus group within the Endocrine Society.
I have participated in mentoring a number of women (and men!) and won the
Lifetime Mentor Award from AAAS in 2003. So far I have not found a publisher for
the book but I am trying.
“I was surprised when I received the little “statue” from our society
commemorating my 50 year membership. Where have the years gone?
Letter to Charles Tipton
Ian Darian-Smith writes: “I was very pleased to receive the birthday card
from the Senior Physiologists’ Commit-tee of the American Physiological Society
and thank you and your colleagues for the kind thoughts.
“I am in good health, and still do a little gardening with my wife.”
|
