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creasing concern to me throughout
my professional career: end-of-life
problems faced by patients and
their families. Scientific and technological
advances in medical care
have altered the dying experience
for many patients. Death, which
often came almost unheralded
after an acute medical episode, is
now more likely to be postponed
for many years. This is a welcome
development when it means added
years of vitality and enjoyment of
life. In some instances, however,
the technical skills available in
the medical armamentarium take
the patient beyond these enjoyable
added years into a prolonged
period of difficult-to-control
symptoms and what has come to
be known as ‘existential suffering.’
How society deals with such
problems has become a major issue
in end-of-life care.
“The confrontation with death
can be difficult for all of us in our
various roles as physicians, nurses,
parents of children and children of
parents — uneasy at best and terrifying
at worst. I have been struck
by the observation that persons
nearing the end of life may come to
terms with death more readily than
family and friends — more readily
even than nurses and physicians.
“Is it always in the best interest
of the patient to do everything possible
to extend life? Are there some
occasions when our energetic efforts
with ventilators, dialysis and tube
feeding are merely prolonging the
dying process, rather than extending
life in a way that is meaningful
for the patient? Such questions
are being asked with increasing
frequency. The answer is different
for every patient but, whenever
possible, the answer must come not
from those who love the patient or
are providing professional care but
directly from the patient.
“Even the best physicians using
the most advanced technical
tools cannot defeat death, but the
instinct to hold death at bay as
long as possible is strong in the
medical profession; some of us
want to fight to the bitter end — an
end that may indeed be bitter for
some patients. Happily, in recent
years, a more nuanced approach
has evolved. The growing number
of hospice programs represents
a major resource committed to
caring for patients at home and
helping them to get the best out
of their final months and weeks.
Hospitals are developing palliative
care programs that offer control of
symptoms at a stage when persistent
efforts to combat disease may
result in pointless suffering.
“More than a decade ago, shortly
after my official ‘retirement,’ seeking
an opportunity to contribute
to society’s approach to such prob-
lems, I co-founded Compassion &
Choices of New York (compassion
andchoicesofny.org), an affiliate of
the national organization Compassion
& Choices (compassionand
choices.org). A small team of professionals
and volunteers, supported
by a dedicated board of directors,
is helping to make a difference. We
work with patients who are nearing
the end of their lives, helping them
and their families to cope with
many problems they face.
“What does the patient understand
about her/his illness? What
does she feel about it? What practical
problems must be addressed?
Has she completed an advance
directive (health care proxy and a
living will)? Is she suffering pain,
shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting,
anxiety, fear? Has she sought
hospice care? Occasionally a patient
in an advanced stage of disease
experiences distress that cannot be
relieved even by skillful palliative
techniques and will seek to hasten
the moment of her death. What can
be done within the limits of the law
to advise and help such patients?
These are among the problems that
our organization seeks to address.
“Beyond one-on-one relationships
with patients and families,
Compassion & Choices is active
in community education and in
promoting legislation in New York
that will strengthen society’s ability
to address these problems. We were
instrumental in developing the Palliative
Care Information Act and the
Family Healthcare Decisions Act,
both of which became New York
State law in 2010. These current
multi-pronged efforts, including
individual counseling, legislation
and education of the public and
health care professionals, represent
significant steps toward a more
thoughtful and humane approach
to end-of-life care.”
Join the discussion and send your
comments and thoughts on this
subject to me. They will appear in
this column.
Irving Ackerman wrote from
Los Angeles: “I listened to the conversation
(on TV; also available
online: video.pbs.org/video/2008
416709) with Richard Heffner and
former Dean Michele Moody-
Adams and found it most interesting.
I, too, felt the four terms of the
Core Curriculum were eye-openers
and mind-enhancers that I thoroug-
hly enjoyed taking and that have
made a great and good difference in
my subsequent thinking and how I
view the world.”
Irv practiced medicine at Massachusetts
General Hospital and for
many years with Kaiser Permanente
in Los Angeles. He recalls
medical school at P&S with Warren
Glaser and Martin Silbersweig.
I ran into Fritz Stern, whose dis-
tinguished Columbia CV includes
University Provost and University
Professor (emeritus). Author of
highly regarded works on Germany
and Europe, he continues globehopping
for lectures and conferences
and keeps adding to his list of
awards and honors.
I received a note from Paul
Rotondi, who now is retired as
CEO and chairman of Washington
Savings Bank in Hoboken, N.J.
REUNION MAY 31–JUNE 3
ALUMNI OFFICE CONTACTS
ALUMNI AFFAIRS Nick Mider
nm2613@columbia.edu
212-851-7846
DEVELOPMENT Allen Rosso
ar3152@columbia.edu
212-851-7947
47
WINTER 2011–12
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Columbia College Today
Columbia Alumni Center
622 W. 113th St., MC 4530
New York, NY 10025
cct@columbia.edu
Merton Reichler, of East Setauket,
N.Y., writes, “At 85, after a career
of college teaching (since 1962 at
SUNY Stony Brook), I now teach
Roman history and the early U.S.
Supreme Court in our large (800plus)
senior citizen organization,
which used to be called The Round
Table but is now (due to a large
grant) called the Osher Lifelong
Learning Institute.
“I have had three wives (all
deceased) and have three adult children
and six grandchildren, plus a
wonderful companion; she is retired
from college teaching of English and
American literature. So far, as you
can see, my health is good enough
to permit these activities, so I need
no others.
“My favorite professors at Columbia
were Larry Chamberlain,
Dwight Miner ’26 and Lionel Trilling
’25. In essence, they taught me
to read critically. When I was at the
College, there was no ‘Core’ — or,
in a way, it was all Core.”
CCT also heard from Charles
(Chuck) Greenwood Wootton of
San Diego. “I’m a retired American
diplomat and Chevron international
public affairs coordinator. I’m
an active volunteer, currently as an
Oasis Reading Tutor of secondgraders,
and was honored to be
named 2011 Volunteer of the Year
by the San Diego Unified School
District.
“I consider the Core the high
point of my undergraduate experience.”
George L. Kline ’50 GSAS wrote:
“I can’t pick a single favorite Columbia
professor. Let me rather mention
half a dozen professors whose
courses I recall with special warmth
and gratitude: Joseph Wood Krutch
’24 GSAS (18th-century English
literature); Rose Raskin and Leon
Stilman ’52 GSAS (Russian language
and literature); André von Gronicka
’42 GSAS (Goethe and Schiller);
Meyer Schapiro ’24, ’35 GSAS (20thcentury
painting); and John Herman
Randall Jr. ’18, ’22 GSAS (history of
philosophy). Von Gronicka, born in
Moscow of a Russian mother and
a Baltic German father, taught my
first college course in Russian. Later
both Randall and von Gronicka were
helpful members of my dissertation
committee. I was happy to be able
in 1967 to contribute an essay to
Randall’s Festschrift.
“Another Columbia professor
whom I recall warmly and admiringly,
though I never took a class
from him, was F.W. Dupee. We
co-taught Senior Colloquium in
1958–59 and took turns introducing
the works to be discussed.
Thus, Dupee, the English professor,
would introduce Hegel, and I, the
philosophy (assistant) professor,
would introduce Dickens. We had a
brilliant group of students, among
them David Rosand ’59, ’65 GSAS,
now the Meyer Schapiro Professor
of Art History Emeritus at Columbia,
and Erwin Glikes ’59, alas no
longer with us, who was president
and publisher of Basic Books.
“The Core Curriculum was a
treasure. As a returning veteran,
I fell in love with the sweep of
Humanities A (from Homer to
Dostoevsky). Teaching that course
several times between 1950 and
1959 was for me a tough but exciting
‘learning experience.’
“As for my current work: 1) I’m
trying to complete the Kline Archive
at Yale’s Beinecke Library: corres-
pondence with Joseph Brodsky
(Nobel laureate 1987) and with
other Russians, drafts of talks and
translations and so forth; 2) I’m
revising my Joseph Brodsky: Selected
Poems (with foreword by W.H.
Auden, 1973) for republication by
Farrar, Straus and Giroux; and 3)
I’m working on the 40th article I’ve
produced since retiring from Bryn
Mawr College in 1991. Meantime,
my patient wife, Virginia, has put
up with me for almost 69 years.”
Former CCT correspondent Bert
Sussman’s wife, Shirley ’46 GSAS,
passed away on October 30. She
earned a master’s in public administration
from Columbia, and her
mentor was Professor McMahon.
In 1946, Shirley was administrative
assistant to first-term Rep.
Jacob Javits (R-N.Y.) and at JFK’s
request set up his office as she did
the Javits office across the hall from
JFK. She was part of the team that
wrote the Marshall Plan. Says Bert,
“Understatement of the century: It
was my privilege and pleasure to
have loved her.”
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