Hello. There is no good way to describe everything that’s happened in the last 40 years. But since I didn’t make it to the 25th reunion and might not make it to the 50th, this seems like a good time to try.

If one divides this up in 10 year blocks, I spent the first 10 years in school: college, pre-medical and medical school, with one year off via South America and several summers traveling, often playing music.

The next 10 were spent first as a primary care physician and then doing research which led me to re-train as a GI MD. The third ten years were spent finishing training (a bit of a pattern here) and also trying out my research ideas on patients who had no good therapy. The last ten years have been spent implementing the idea: of a gastric stimulator or pacemaker for patients unable to eat or function normally. I now teach at the U of MS medical school in Jackson. (We survived the hurricanes as well last year.)

I have been very lucky: to have helped develop a therapy that helps many patients and is now used on three continents. I have also been extremely fortunate that my wife, a native of Yankton, has believed in the ideas and two children who have had to give up a lot for me to continue working.

Like everyone, I have had a number of difficult situations to deal with. Probably the most distressing was the death of my brother Jack, who many of you knew (VHS63) from pancreatic cancer in 1993. Jack and I lived near each other, and we have all pulled through and his children are now grown.

I have encountered a lot of things I never thought I would in the last 40 years but feel that VHS and Vermillion were good preparation for many of them. If I were to list the factors that we all shared together in school, and that have helped me since they would be at least 10 (other) things: a belief in the value of education; ability to work hard;  the importance of creativity; of honesty and probably most importantly humor. I also think that living in Vermillion when we did gave us some ability to look outside of ourselves; to be competitive with anyone;  to connect the pioneer past of Dakota with the rest of the world; to know the importance of family; and lastly to have loyalty to ourselves and where we came from.

I hope that I will be able to meet many others from VHS 66 and with luck, be able to come back again.

Ridgeland, MS 39158

phone: 601-605-0195