Notes

1940s

Morris A. Wessel, M.D. ’43, has retired from the Clifford Beers Clinic, the oldest outpatient behavioral health clinic in the United States, after 35 years of service as a pediatrician and advocate for children and families. The clinic announced that their new national trauma center will now be named the Morris Wessel Child and Family Trauma Center of the Clifford Beers Clinic. Wessel cared for generations of New Haven children as a pediatrician in practice from 1951 until his retirement in 1993.

1950s

Harry C. Miller, M.D. ’54, writes to say, “In September 2006, Kari and I moved from Great Falls, Va., where we’d lived for 33 years, to a new home in Keswick, Va. It’s a lovely spot in a lovely development called Glenmore. Nice golf course, nice neighbors, lots of kids, six miles from Charlottesville. Gorgeous views of the Blue Ridge.” Miller still participates in urology conferences at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Mary W. Schley, M.D. ’52, received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Columbus State University in Georgia, honoring her 45 years of professional work in Columbus as well as her volunteer work in organizations devoted to education, health care and the performing arts.

1960s

The Tufts-New England Medical Center’s (NEMC) Division of Nephrology celebrated the 70th birthday of John T. Harrington, M.D. ’62, in January and noted his contributions to the medical center, Tufts University School of Medicine and the field of nephrology. Harrington began his association with NEMC in 1965 as a nephrology fellow, subsequently serving as director of the dialysis unit and chief of the division of general internal medicine. In 1996 he was appointed dean of Tufts University School of Medicine, a position he held until 2002. As dean emeritus, Harrington currently serves as a senior nephrologist and professor of medicine. The celebration also featured the inaugural “Dr. John T. Harrington Medical Grand Rounds,” and the announcement of the creation of an endowed fund in nephrology in Harrington’s name as well as the naming of the Dr. John T. Harrington Conference Room in the Division of Nephrology.

Marc E. Lippman, M.D. ’68, a pioneering breast cancer researcher, has been named chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Lippman currently chairs the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Michigan. He was previously director of the cancer research center at Georgetown University and spent 18 years as a senior investigator with the National Cancer Institute. Lippman, who started in Miami on May 1, has five patents and author credit on more than 600 articles, chapters and books. Lippman is currently studying biological markers that could predict which breast tumors will respond to hormone therapy. He will continue to see patients and, with his new post, will also chair the Department of Medicine at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

John E. Mayer Jr., M.D. ’68, a senior associate in cardiovascular surgery at the Children’s Hospital in Boston and a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, was elected president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) at its annual membership meeting on February 5. Mayer has been involved with STS throughout his career, his principal interests being issues in government relations and public affairs.

1970s

C. Gene Cayten, M.D., M.P.H. ’72, senior associate dean and professor of surgery at New York Medical College, received the Physician Achievement Award in September from Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y. Cayten is the author of more than 100 publications and 36 book chapters and has been chair of surgery at the medical center for 23 years.

Robert B. Diasio, M.D. ’71, began serving as director of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center in September. He will also oversee cancer center activities at the branches of the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz., and in Jacksonville, Fla. Diasio was previously a professor of medicine, pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham. He plans to continue his pharmacogenomic research, which focuses on maximizing the effectiveness of chemotherapy through new genetic diagnostic methods.

Edward C. Halperin, M.D. ’79, vice dean of the Duke University School of Medicine, assumed the deanship of the University of Louisville’s School of Medicine in November. Halperin is also the Ford Foundation Professor of Medical Education and a professor of radiation oncology and pediatrics at the medical school, as well as a professor of history in the university’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Ralph I. Horwitz, M.D., FW ’77, the Arthur Bloomfield Professor and the chair of the Department of Medicine at Stanford University, is one of seven people named as members of the National Institute of Health’s Advisory Committee to the Director. The committee has advised the director on policy and planning issues for more than 40 years. The seven new members join 13 current committee members.

Tom Smith, M.D. ’79, and Joann Bodurtha, M.D. ’79 (married in 1982), report that their daughter Anna has enrolled in Yale College in the Class of 2010. The Thomas Palliative Care Program at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), which Smith directs, won the American Hospital Association’s Circle of Life award for the best palliative care program in 2005 and the International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care’s University Award for the best academic program in 2006. Smith is a professor of medicine at the VCU Massey Cancer Center in Richmond. Bodurtha is professor of human genetics, pediatrics and obstetrics-gynecology at VCU, and has been named interim chair of the Department of Human Genetics. Both have active RO1-funded research programs as well as busy clinical practices—important now that they are empty nesters.

Eliot Sorel, M.D., FW ’75, co-chaired the Pan American Health Organization Forum on Bioethics, Public Health and Health Policy at the World Congress of Public Health in Rio de Janeiro in August. As part of that forum, he also presented “Modernising Health Systems, a 21st-Century Essential Prerogative.” Last May he served as a senior advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, on “Modernising Health Care Systems in Central and Eastern Europe.”

1980s

Robert L. Levin, M.D. ’89, and Karen Shaevel Gumer, M.S., C.R.N.P., were married in September in Washington, Levin is a medical officer in the Division of Psychiatry Products of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Gumer is a family nurse practitioner in Rockville, Md.

William A. Petit Jr., M.D., FW ’88, was installed as president of the Hartford County Medical Association in Cheshire, Conn., in November. He was also cited by Connecticut Magazine as one of the state’s top physicians for women.

Rock G. Positano, D.P.M., M.Sc., M.P.H. ’89, was named director last fall of the Joe DiMaggio Sports Foot and Ankle Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. The center is dedicated to nonsurgical management of foot and ankle problems as well as athletic injuries. Positano also writes the Tuesday health column for the New York Post.

Andrew Steele, M.D. ’86, M.P.H., has received a master’s degree in health informatics from the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1990s

Duane A. Bryan, M.D. ’96, and Sarah E. O’Loughlin, R.N., were married in November at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York. Bryan is a cardiologist and partner in Advanced Cardiovascular Care, a group practice in Valley Cottage, N.Y. O’Loughlin is a nurse anesthesiologist with Northeastern Anesthesia Services in Mt. Kisco, N.Y.

Brian “Ari” Cole, M.D., M.P.H. ’95, has recently started his second master’s-degree program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. He hopes to serve as a diplomat, perhaps in Scandinavia. Last fall he was also cross-registered at Harvard Law School “to better understand the problems between lawyers and physicians.” Cole practices medicine in Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York. He considers Prague and Stockholm his favorite European cities for vacation and work.

Benjamin R. Doolittle, M.D. ’97, M.Div. ’97, HS ’02, assistant professor of medicine (general medicine) and pediatrics at the School of Medicine, was one of 53 nominees for the 2006 Association of American Medical Colleges Humanism in Medicine Award. The nomination by medical students is recognition of a candidate as a positive and caring role model. Five characteristics are considered: mentoring skills, compassion and sensitivity, collaboration, community service activity and observance of professional ethics.

Rommel Nobay, M.P.H. ’99, was married on January 20 in Stamford, Conn., to Frances Wu. Nobay is an associate director of information technology at Genzyme, a biotech company. Wu is an account director in the direct marketing unit of the McCann Worldgroup, an international advertising agency headquartered in New York City.

2000s

Aaryn Cohen Oleson, M.P.H. ’00, and her husband, Matthew, announce the birth of their first child, Wyatt Samuel, on August 16. She is the pharmacovigilance consultant at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and a doctoral candidate in pharmacoepidemiology. He is receiving his doctorate in physical therapy from Duke University.

Peter J. Mason, M.D., HS ’00, M.P.H., has joined the Wisconsin Heart and Vascular Institute in Madison. A cardiac and vascular interventionist, Mason received his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts School of Medicine, where he was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. He completed his internal medicine internship and residency at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and fellowships in cardiovascular epidemiology and peripheral vascular medicine and intervention at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He also completed fellowships in cardiovascular medicine and interventional cardiology at Boston Medical Center. Mason earned a public health degree at Harvard University School of Public Health.

Peter M. Petrillo, PA ’02, was married to Bridget Nester in Falmouth, Mass., in September. Petrillo is a physician’s assistant at the Hospital of St. Raphael in New Haven. Nester is a nurse anesthetist in New Haven.

Curtis Weiss, M.D. ’05, was married to Alexandra Block, J.D. ’04, in Westbrook, Conn., on August 27. Weiss is a resident in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital. Block is an associate in a New Haven law firm.

Send alumni news items to Claire M. Bessinger, Yale Medicine Publications, 300 George Street, Suite 773, New Haven, CT 06511, or via e-mail to claire.bessinger@yale.edu.