From French lessons to fox-hunting, emeriti look forward to fun
The eight members of the DMS faculty who attained emeritus status during the past year have every right to rest on their laurels after a collective 178 years at Dartmouth. Some plan to continue working in retirement, and all look forward to having fun as well in various community service and avocational pursuits.
Roger Smith, Ph.D., the Irene Heinz Given Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, plans to continue teaching at DMS as well as at the community-based Institute for Lifelong Education at Dartmouth (ILEAD). It's a good thing, because people can't wait to sign up for the popular "Medical Detectives" course that he teaches at both the Medical School and ILEAD. (See "What Makes My Baby Blue?" in the Summer 2000 issue.) He also plans to handle public relations for the ILEAD program and to continue writing for Dartmouth Medicine.
Smith came to DMS in 1960 after receiving his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Purdue and working for three years in the Forensic Toxicology Section of the U.S. Army's European Medical Laboratory in Landstuhl, Germany. He chaired DMS's pharmacology and toxicology department from 1975 to 1987, was an adjunct professor at Vermont Law School from 1981 to 1987, has been an adjunct professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College since 1984, and was appointed to the Given Professorship in 1993. He has also served on a number of national and regional committees, including for the National Research Council.
Leland Hall, M.D., an associate professor of surgery (orthopedics), is keeping his medical license active because he plans to practice medicine internationally. He hopes to accompany colleagues to a clinic in Guatemala where the community is dealing with water and sewer problems as well as medical needs.
Hall received his M.D. from the University of Oregon in 1955; spent a year in Korea as a flight surgeon; and completed his orthopedic surgery residency at the University of Minnesota. When he came to Dartmouth in 1963, he was one of only three orthopedists on the staff; there are now 12.
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Six of DMS's eight new emeriti gathered for a photo recently. From the left are Roger Smith, Harte Crow, Leland Hall, Bob Wilkinson, John Ketterer, and Herb Maurer; unable to be there were Judy Tyson and Bob Porter. Mark Austin-Washburn |
Hall also plans to travel, visiting children and grandchildren in Vermont, Florida, and Kentucky, as well as Kenya, where a daughter runs safaris. And he wants to spend more time building furniture in the woodworking shop at Dartmouth's Hopkins Center; "they have a wonderful array of tools," he says.
Herbert Maurer, M.D., a professor of medicine, won't be relaxing too much in retirement. "I'll take two months off," he says, "then work for my wife part-time in an oncology practice in Bennington, Vt." His wife, Letha Mills, M.D., was formerly at DHMC and left to start her own practice a year or so ago. "I may also work for a disease management company as an assistant medical director," adds Maurer, "perhaps with their Web site."
Maurer has many ties to Dartmouth —as an undergrad (Class of '60) and then, after earning his M.D. at Albany Medical College, as a resident in medicine. After two years of military service, he returned to Dartmouth to complete his residency. When he joined the faculty in 1971, he was one of just four oncologists in the state—all of them at DHMC. Over the years, he's done a lot of outreach—visiting community hospitals, educating patients, and consulting for community physicians. He was deputy director of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center from 1992 to 1995 and chief of hemeonc from 1993 to 1996.
And if his retirement plate still isn't full, he "may even try to restart my cookbook related to diet and cancer."
Harte Crow, M.D., a professor of radiology, is still a member of the DMS Admissions Committee and continues to work part-time in DHMC's outreach program at Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth, N.H., as well as in the radiology section at DHMC.
As a challenge, he says, "I have recently begun studying French again after a 50-year hiatus, and I do a little watercolor painting." He and his wife also like to travel in Europe, garden, hike, cross-country ski, and entertain their grandchildren.
Crow received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1960 and did residencies in medicine at University Hospitals of Cleveland and in radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He came to Dartmouth in 1971 as a general radiologist and was soon involved in the still-experimental field of diagnostic ultrasound. After spending his career in a specialty that has undergone a dramatic change, Crow wants to help others learn the technologies. "I'm hoping to spend some time in the next year to begin teaching ultrasound somewhere in the Third World," he says.
Robert Porter, M.D., an associate professor of surgery (orthopedics), says that "to have had the opportunity to be a physiciansurgeon over the past 30 years has been a great joy—first to learn, then to practice, then to teach, then," he concludes, "to make a difference in the healthcare system through testing, licensure, standard-setting, and helping to establish a comprehensive retesting and remediation program for physicians." (See page 64 in this issue for more about this latter area.)
Porter's work on professional competencies was accomplished in his roles as a past member and president of the New Hampshire Board of Medicine and of the national Federation of State Medical Boards; he is still a director of the National Board of Medical Examiners.
Porter joined the faculty in 1972 and cofounded the sports medicine program in 1980. He's also on the board of the Friends of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, an activity he intends to keep up in retirement.
"In my spare time, I love to play golf," Porter says. He likes to travel, too—especially by sailboat. "My wife does the navigation and mans the helm," he says. "I take care of the engine room." The Porters have sailed all over the world—Greece, the North Sea, Denmark, and the Caribbean, as well as through the Panama Canal.
Judith Tyson, M.D., an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, didn't go to medical school until after she'd earned a master's degree in Hispanic studies and had her children. She knew she'd need more science to even consider medical school, so she wangled her way into premed courses at Dartmouth in the 1960s—well before the College was coed. She received her M.D. from the University of Vermont (UVM) in 1970 and completed residencies in ob-gyn at Roosevelt Hospital in New York, in anesthesiology at UVM, and in ob-gyn at Western Pennsylvania Hospital. She joined the Dartmouth faculty in 1979.
An advocate for women's health, she has also served since 1978 as medical director for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England (PPNNE). When asked by the PPNNE newsletter about her retirement plans, she said, "I haven't a clue. . . . I want to do something probably completely different, but I don't know yet what that will be. There have been times in life when I've sensed a plateau, and I'm not very good at plateaus. Pretty soon another mountain looms on the horizon and there I go after it. I'm waiting to see the mountain."
John Ketterer, M.D., an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology, plans a "phased retirement" because "it's good to still feel a part of the organization and not stop abruptly." He will continue to work two days a week—seeing patients as well as teaching medical students and residents in the clinical setting. He has been at DHMC since 1981, as ob-gyn has "grown from a relatively small section in maternal and child health to [a] nationally known department with its own residency program."
He looks forward to spending more time golfing, puttering around his 20-acre farm, boating, downhill-skiing, playing with the 0-gauge Lionel trains in his basement, and fox-hunting. Or more precisely, "fox-chasing." He founded the North Country Hounds—one of 160 registered hunt clubs in the U.S.—in 1980. "No foxes ever get killed," he emphasizes, though the riders are dressed in full hunt regalia— scarlet jackets, white breeches, black boots with brown tops, and black velvet hardhats. It's a timeconsuming activity for Ketterer: training hounds, clearing trails, and caring for his horses—a seven- year-old Percheron and an eight-year-old Clydesdale.
Robert Wilkinson, M.D., a professor of radiology and of pediatrics, retired last fall and has been occupied since then building a new house in Hanover. He expects to also visit family and friends all over—France, Vermont, California, Colorado (for the Telluride Film Festival, of which his wife is a board member), and Utah (for skiing).
He came to DHMC in 1992 after almost 20 years at Boston Children's Hospital when he grew tired of Boston traffic. Besides, DHMC was closer to good skiing. He has also been a resident pediatrician at the Grenfell Mission in northern Canada.
Another retirement activity for Wilkinson will be organizing a career's worth of slides and radiographs depicting bone and joint injuries and diseases. He plans to then donate them to DMS and looks forward to holding informal sessions with students to discuss the collection.
Laura Stephenson Carter
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