Thinking about our high school years is making me very sentimental --- looking at those yearbook pictures it is astounding to see how young and hopeful we all appeared. In many ways, those were the best of times --- the world was so much less complicated.

A short bio follows. Since my wife, Roxanne, says I'm the only person that she knows who can spend a hour describing an orange, I've tried to keep it to corn kernel size.

After graduating from RHS, I went off to Tufts University (Biology / Chemistry major) and at the end of my freshman year I was accepted into the neurophysiology honors program with a National Science Foundation research grant. Ultimately, that led me to Tufts Medical School by which time I had already decided on neurosurgery as my profession. I spent my summers doing research in neurophysiology (undergraduate) and, eventually, neurology (as a medical student) in the Boston area and became very interested in sailing small boats (110s, 210s, and occasionally International One Designs) on weekends in Marblehead. I was fortunate to be around for Nefertiti's attempt at securing the challenger position for the America's Cup in 1962 and I suppose that is when the yacht racing bug bit me.

Following medical school, I was accepted into an academic surgical internship at the University of Minnesota Medical Center of which three months were spent on a neurosurgical rotation. The next year I stayed on and completed a year of general surgical residency with another three month neurosurgical rotation. In those days, Viet Nam, all of us (doctors) had to serve two years of active duty in the military so, being a "sailor" at heart, I opted for the Navy and was assigned as surgeon aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Hornet after completing "knife and fork" school at the Naval Amphibious Warfare Center in Coronado California. Then off to Westpac for my year of sea duty and to became a member of the Gulf of Tonkin Yacht Club as we called it. My second year of active duty was spent at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Long Beach, California where Hornet was home ported and undergoing refitting in dry dock.

Subsequent to my discharge from active duty, I began my five year academic neurosurgical residency in New Haven at Yale. In 1974 I started my practice in Springfield, Massachusetts at the Baystate Medical Center with a clinical teaching affiliation at the Tufts New England Medical Center.

After nineteen years in practice and too many "indiscretions" involving fast cars, motorcycles, and helicopters resulting in several rather severe physical traumas (very few of my original parts remain), I retired in 1993. Roxanne and I moved to Cape Town, South Africa where we had acquired some property overlooking Table Bay, Table Mountain and Robben Island, and where we had built our African home.

INTERESTS:

Photography:
Aerial and yachting photography --- it started as a hobby. When photographing the requisite African flora and fauna became boring, I had an opportunity thanks to my carrier experience to do some aerial (jet to jet) photography via a contact with the U.S. Naval attaché in South Africa. I started photographing for the South African Navy and shot the local yacht races for their Sailing Magazine.

Click on Photos to Enlarge