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FROM OUR PAGES

In this section, we highlight visual and textual tidbits from past issues of the magazine. These messages from yesteryear remind us about how fast some things in medicine (and in life) change, as well as about some timeless truths.

From the Spring 1989 issue

"I arrived for my admissions interview with Dr. Harry Savage amidst construction of what is now the Remsen medical building." So wrote Valerie Leval Graham, M.D., a member of the DMS Class of 1962. "There were construction vehicles and piles of building materials everywhere, and the surrounding area was a sea of mud.

"I could see that there was a big circular drive going up to the door of the place, but I didn't want to get in the way of the workmen. So I parked my car on the far side of the drive, got out, and tried to figure out the best route to the door. The whole area was all mud and sand, and it looked as if it was better to go across the middle than around the edges. It got muddier and muddier as I went, however, and about halfway across I lifted my foot—and my shoe stayed behind. When I leaned over to pick up my shoe, my other shoe came off. By then, both my shoes were just balls of mud.

"I looked up and there was this old fellow—he looked like a workman, in his shirtsleeves—standing in front of the Medical School. I figured he must be laughing his head off. But there was nothing to do but keep on going, and I finally got to the other side with my muddy feet. I brushed them off and asked the man if he could direct me to some water where I could clean my shoes. He didn't say much, just pointed round the corner to an outlet. I rinsed off my shoes, put them back on, and hoped nobody had been watching out the windows of the Medical School. Then I went back to the man and asked, 'Do you know where I can find Dr. Savage?' And he said, 'I'm Dr. Savage.'

"Despite that dubious start, I was accepted into the Class of '62." Graham was the first woman student at Dartmouth Medical School and the only woman in her class of 24.

The Class of 1962 contained 23 men—and DMS's first woman student.


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