A Passion for Science - Columbia College - Columbia University

Columbia CollEgE Today CLASS NOTES
any of their fellow students.”
Castelli's letter to Bollinger read,
in part: “As a champion of diversity,
I would expect that you could convey
to your students the fact that
they do not need to honor the war
to respect and honor our warriors.
The treatment of this young veteran
who was wounded 11 times in the
service of his country is abhorrent,
to say the least ... (M)embers of our
military who served their country
and risked their lives on all our
behalf should be treated with the
same dignity and respect that your
institution demands for any diverse
member of our population.”
armen haig wrote, after we
chatted by phone: “I am still doing
orthopedic surgery, now with my
son, who is managing the practice in
Bronxville, N.Y., with part-time clinical
academic interest at NewYork-
Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia
University Medical Center.
“I had been department director
at Lawrence Hospital Center and
then chief of staff before moving on
to senior staff. My previous academic
activity had been a full-time
academic appointment at Albert
Einstein Medical Center as deputy
director, where I had a wonderful
time managing the residency training
program from 1964–69, when I
moved to Westchester.
“My Columbia friends included
Frank Durkan ’51, who passed
away recently, just before a reunion
we had planned. We kept putting it
off, but we talked by phone about
his clients (he was a lawyer). Lesson
learned: Do not squander opportunities
to hold old (or new) friendships.
You don’t always get a second
chance. Thanks for listening.”
From irwin herman: “Most of
the names that appear in this col-
umn, I do not recognize. Whether
this is due to time or age, I can’t
say. My wife has buried the 1952
yearbook in the depths of an antique
steamer trunk, and I don’t dare open
it to check the pictures lest I release
evil. This is sad because during
1948–52, we knew almost everyone
in the College by name or by sight.
“My name will probably suffer
the same lack of recognition, but
because it’s almost 60 years (60
years!) since graduation, I will take
an old man’s liberty of providing a
brief biography. Maybe some survivors
out there in graduation land
will find this interesting.
“After graduation, I returned
to Cincinnati, where I started my
career in journalism, running copy
for the Cincinnati Enquirer until the
Army called. After two years at
Fort Belvoir in public information,
where I saw Mal schechter pass
through the engineering school
and Max frankel while on an official
visit to the Pentagon, I ended
up as a reporter (in fact, the only
reporter) at a daily paper in Frankfort,
Ky. I decided to move on, and
while heading to North Carolina
with a fellowship in sociology and
a job stringing for the Durham Sun,
got sidetracked. I ended up working
for a daily labor paper out of
Charleston, W.Va. I was unhappy
there, so I moved back to Cincinnati,
where I remained unemployed
and rejected by every major paper
I queried. At a crossroad, I decided
to use the G.I. Bill. Remembering
how happy and unstressed the premeds
were at Columbia, I decided
to go to medical school. Unfortunately,
I had none of the science
requirements. So in two years and
working full-time, I got the credits
and got admitted to University of
Cincinnati College of Medicine. After
a year of internship, three years
of internal medicine residency and
a year of fellowship, I established
practice in Oakland, Calif.
“I married an attractive, talented
young lady from Iowa named
Virginia, whom I met while she
was a physical therapist at the
V.A. hospital in Cincinnati. She
has had the fortitude to tolerate
my years of residency and me. We
have three boys. The oldest, David,
is a captain in the Navy, married
to a pathologist, and has realized
his dream of being a skipper of
an attack submarine. He has two
boys. Middle son, Tom, after getting
his master’s in biotech and
working in research, switched to
more remunerative biotech sales.
He married a schoolteacher, continued
the family tradition having
two boys, and lives in idyllic
Coronado, Calif. Our youngest,
Charlie, went to Berkeley, was Phi
Beta Kappa and by an unusual set
of circumstances acted as factotum
for David Brinkley during the 50th
D-Day commemoration in France.
This led to a job at ABC News,
where he advanced to business
and economics producer. This past
year he moved to a similar position
at WNYC in NYC.
“The chaos of insurance and the
government led me to leave practice
in 1994, and I joined the enemy as
a medical consultant for the state of
California, where I work full-time.
“This has been a long bio written
at the request of our esteemed
’52 column editor, Sidney. However,
I will announce now that this
is not an invitation for solicitations.
With the wisdom of age, I have
gone from yellow dog Democrat to
conservative independent.”
Citing what he perceives as “the
pervasive radical and anti-Israeli
bias of the University,” Irwin closes
by saying he has “moved my wallet
from my left to right hip pocket.”
This next about anthony (a.
James) gregor: Anthony Gimigliano,
born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on April
MAY/JUNE 2011
47
2, 1929, proceeded to earn his Ph.D.
(1961) in social and political philosophy
as an Irwin Edman Scholar
in the philosophy department of
Columbia. He commenced his career
as an educator by working in the
philosophy departments of the universities
of Hawaii, Kentucky and
Texas, before being invited, in 1967,
to join the faculty of the political science
department at UC Berkeley. He
retired from his teaching obligations
in 2009, and continues his research
and publication, primarily in the
history of revolutionary thought. He
has published 26 volumes, the most
recent of which include Marxism,
Fascism, and Totalitarianism: Chapters
in the Intellectual History of Radicalism;
The Search for Neofascism: The Use and
Abuse of Social Science; Mussolini’s
Intellectuals: Fascist Social and Political
Thought; and Faces of Janus: Marxism
and Fascism in the Twentieth Century.
Collateral with his studies in
revolutionary ideologies, Anthony
has published widely in professional
journals dealing with security
and national defense issues. In
that capacity, he has held the Oppenheimer
Chair of Warfighting
Strategy at the United States Marine
Corps University (1996–97)
as well as been an adjunct lecturer
for the Professional School, Department
of State, and occasional
lecturer for the National Defense
University and the United States
Marine Corps University. He
has served as expert witness in
regional security matters for both
houses of Congress and on the
editorial boards of the Journal of
Strategic Studies and Comparative
Strategy. Anthony has participated
in lectures and conferences in
most of the major cities of the
United States, and in Europe, as
well as Mexico City, Buenos Aires
and Montevideo in Latin America.
Similar obligations took him to
Tokyo, Beijing, Pyongyang, Taipei,
Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Manila,
New Delhi and Calcutta in Asia.
As a lecturer for the United State
Information Agency, Anthony
spoke at institutions in Jerusalem,
Cairo and Pretoria. In 1972,
he was awarded a Guggenheim
Fellowship. In 1974, he was
commemorative speaker at the
Giovanni Gentile Commemorative
Ceremony of the Enciclopedia
Italiana, Rome. He was a fellow of
the Center for Advanced Study in
the Social Sciences at the Hebrew
University, Jerusalem (1980–81). In
2004, the government of the Republic
of Italy awarded Anthony
membership (as cavaliere) in the
Order of Merit. He lives in Berkeley,
Calif., with his wife, Professor
Maria Hsia Chang.
Your reporter thanks you all
for your contributions and wishes
good health and happiness to all.
53
lew robins
1221 Stratfield Rd.
Fairfield, CT 06825
lewrobins@aol.com
The unusual achievement of our
innovative classmate herman
winick is truly amazing. In 1997,
Herman was associated with
the SLAC National Accelerator
Laboratory at Stanford when he
learned that the Bonn government
in Germany was planning to shut
down its existing synchotron and
replace it with a newer, more powerful
model. The Germans planned
to cut up their old synchotron and
sell its metal as scrap.
In simple terms, a synchotron
produces super intense X-rays that
enable scientists to see the detailed
arrangements of atoms inside complex
molecules such as proteins.
For example, the synchotron makes
it possible to analyze the atomic
structure of defective hemoglobin
in order to create a medicine to help
patients with sickle cell anemia.
Hearing that the Bonn government
was about to sell the existing
synchotron, Herman came up with
an imaginative idea. Instead of
selling it as scrap, would the Bonn
government be willing to donate
the equipment to a scientific group
in the Middle East?
Working diligently, Herman
was able to secure an enthusiastic
response from the scientific community
and UNESCO. As a result,
nine Middle Eastern countries (Bahrain,
Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian
Authority, Cypress, Jordan, Turkey,
Iran and Pakistan) agreed to construct
the Middle East’s first major
cooperative international scientific
research center. Jordan successfully
competed with seven countries to
become the site for the new center.
Talking to Herman on the phone,
I learned that he is especially ex-
cited that this cooperative venture
of scientists from nine countries will
convince bright young students in
the area to work together on peaceful
projects that will have enormous
medical and other benefits for
people in their countries and for
the entire world. Detailed information
about the project is available at
www.sesame.org.jo.
Keep up the great work, Herman!
Your classmates are proud of your
determined efforts over many years
to bring this project to fruition.
Talking to stan Maratos by
phone, I learned that last summer
he was inducted into the Hellenic
Athletic Hall of Fame at a ceremony
in Montreal. His achievements
were cited at a dinner attended by
300 people where Stan received a
huge plaque and a glass globe on
a pedestal. Interestingly enough,
Stan is one of a small number of our
classmates who married as under-