FAVORITE MEMORIES OF WILLIAMS

Friends and times at Agard House for three wonderful years
Working in my independent labs in Biology and Psychology Departments during the summer before senior year and through senior year
Hiking, cross-country skiing, and snowshoeing around Williams
Fall and football and soccer games in the glorious Purple Valley
Road-tripping between Williams and Skidmore for three years, with those memories enduring today

CURRENT INTERESTS, PASSIONS, AND ORGANIZATIONS

Spending time cruising the waters of Puget Sound and farther north, first by sailboat and now by our Ranger 31 powerboat
Pre-Covid international travels throughout the world and USA
Spending time with family and friends
Passion for my medical practice until forced to retire for medical issues with stage 4 melanoma in 2013
Appreciation for the advancements in medical science at the National Institute of Health, where I received cutting-edge immunotherapy that has allowed me to continue to enjoy life!!

LIFE SINCE GRADUATION

I have always felt an overwhelming appreciation for the four years that I spent at Williams. It was a time that encompassed many transitions in my world and provided support and camaraderie that supported growth and change. Aside from all the craziness around the basic studies, classes, and labs for a pre-med major, there was friendship, support, encouragement, and acceptance. Fall always takes me back to the stunning beauty of the Williams campus and the joy of attending soccer and football games, with the overwhelming colors of autumn surrounding the campus and Williamstown area.

Williams gave me a place to further my goal of going to medical school and follow in my father’s footsteps in medicine. This happened despite Professor Compton’s insistence that pre-med candidates were required to sit for a final exam in organic chemistry the fall after the spring-term student strike that brought the semester to an early close; this was the only way to get a needed letter of recommendation.

In the fall of sophomore year, a road trip with Gregg Peterson took me to a Skidmore mixer, where I was delighted to be introduced to Krista, my long-term love and partner. I will ever be grateful to Williams College and its all-male status that year that caused me to travel elsewhere and meet Krista. I also adored my three years living at Agard House and being associated with The Fort. It was truly a refuge for study, companionship, and craziness that can scarcely be recounted. Building a bar for Gregg’s and my room from scrap lumber, assembling a water bed with no frame, and, turning the Agard living room into a major party space were highlights. There are so many memories, so many classes, so many trips to Skidmore, so many squash games, so many late night talks, so many great friends . . . All of that and I was not sent to Vietnam. I ended up in medical school in Rochester, N.Y., followed by my internship and residency at the University of Washington.

I joined an internal medicine group in downtown Seattle, where I practiced for 35 years. I survived an encounter with stage 4 melanoma in 2013 and am still alive, thanks to the miracle of modern medicine in the form of a modified killer T-cell bone marrow replacement at the National Institutes of Health in DC. Krista (a girl with three years of Williams campus weekend life and Agard House credentials) and I were blessed to share those years together at Williams. We have abundant memories of times and places and people that were all very special to us. We are most fortunate to have both our grown children and a son-in-law living in Seattle, and in 2022 we will become grandparents for our very first time. We enjoy having much more time together than was ever possible when I was working 100+ hours a week. Pre-Covid, we traveled extensively. We enjoy boating, taking long walks, escaping to campgrounds in our Sprinter van, spending time with our kids, and being in a small book club that has been meeting for 35 years. Life is good, and being at Williams was and is a treasured memory.