By Gregory A. Weiss
Dr. Howard Cohen has been appointed professor of medicine and director of the Institute of Interventional Medicine at Temple University School of Medicine. Howard previously was at Lenox Hill Hospital in NYC and is a recognized pioneer in the area of interventional cardiology. He was one of the first cardiologists to perform angioplasty in the US and is one of the most experienced physicians in the country in radial artery access (for us laymen, we understand that this means through the wrist) for diagnostic and interventional procedures.
Rick Gerard’s daughter, Dr. Elizabeth Gerard ’98, had a boy in November, making Rick a first-time grandparent. Dr. Russ Dilley’s daughter Lauren was married in October. Your corresponding secretary is now the proud grandfather of 11, his youngest daughter, Jody, having delivered her third child, Graham Sargeant, on the morning of the day Hurricane Sandy hit the NYC area, October 29.
Many of you will remember that in the May/June issue we published a note fromPat Randolf saying that “rumors of my imminent death appear exaggerated.” Pat was pretty optimistic back then, but unfortunately he lost his battle with prostate cancer in October. The tributes to Pat’s life have been numerous and heartfelt. He seemed to have had inexhaustible energy. As one of his colleagues wrote: “He was one of those people who enjoyed so much that he could not say ‘no.’” He was apparently involved in at least 35 different committees for the real estate section of the American Bar Association. And this along with a full-time professorship at the University of Missouri at Kansas City Law School and practicing law with a Kansas City law firm. Pat was particularly knowledgeable about Chinese real estate law, having lectured at no less than 20 Chinese law schools. In 2000 he was named by Realtor magazine as one of the 25 most influential people in American real estate.
Another death to report: Ray Heizer on November 13. After graduating from Yale with an engineering degree, Ray joined the Peace Corps and went to Iran for two years. He married Hannelore Trochim, a German Peace Corps volunteer, in 1967 in Tehran. Ray had many different interests in his life and was always ready to try something new. He worked in the field of desalination, making freshwater from seawater, which took him for four years to Saudi Arabia. In 1982 he founded Heizer General and later Heizer Software, which he sold in 1996. After that he started Heizer Strategic Services, an investigating firm from which he retired in 2005. He enjoyed traveling throughout his life, including a one-year trip with a travel trailer though the US and Canada. In 2007 Ray and Hannelore hiked “coast to coast” across England. His last love was to hike the Appalachian Trail in 2009. He was very proud of the fact that his sister, Joanne, was able to trace three of their ancestors back to the Mayflower, and he was a member of the California Mayflower Society.
And, briefly, a third obituary: John Zornig died on September 13 in Lincoln, Massachusetts.
Ben Lipzin has been doing a lot of traveling in the past year. He participated in the class winterfest in Beaver Creek, Colorado, last January, where he was joined by his son and family. Then there were two weeks in Peru with a daughter, three days at Disney World with five grandchildren and their parents, and two weeks in Australia after presenting there a paper at the International Psychogeriatric Meeting.
Stephen Chapman writes: “My wife Linda and I have both retired and are living permanently on Martha’s Vineyard. We are both pursuing personal interests, including learning—late in the game—the ancient and royal game of golf. My energies of creative direction are focused on personal projects and photography.”
Finally, a brief, sad note from John McLaughlin MD, in Seattle: “I must report with great sorrow that the love of my life, Suzanne Rossire McLaughlin (Conn College ’68), has been swept away from me by a tsunami of health problems. She sang with the ConnCords and was a radiant presence around Branford my senior year.”