1940s

Retired family physician Donald D. Finlayson (M.D. 1941), of Sault Ste. Marie, received the Lake Superior State University Distinguished Citizen Award in October, 1999. The award, which honors friends and advocates of Lake State, its students, faculty and staff, recognizes Finlayson’s many contributions to the school, including service as the University’s first school physician from 1946 until 1978. Furthering the honor, beginning in 2001 the award will be known as the Catherine and Donald Finlayson Award, named for the physician and his wife.

1950s

Paul Wolf (M.D. 1952) is professor of pathology at the University of California, San Diego. Earlier in his career he was professor of pathology at Stanford University, where he was director of clinical laboratories, and at Wayne State University in Detroit. He has received 10 consecutive Excellence in Teaching awards from the graduating fourth-year classes at the University of California Medical Center, and in 1997 he received the prestigious Albert Chaney Award from the California section of the American Association of Clinical Chemistry for his research and teaching related to clinical chemistry technology.

He can be reached by e-mail at paul.wolf@med.va.gov or by phone at (619) 552-8585, ext. 7762.

B. J. Woodley (M.D. 1956), a family physician practicing in Trenton and known for his pioneering surgical treatment of cardiac anomalies in infants and children, was selected as “Family Physician of the Year” by the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians. The Wayne County Medical Society’s Detroit Medical News announced Woodley’s award last fall, noting that he has long been “a keen observer of Michigan politics” who has been “instrumental in developing relationships between doctors and legislators, first locally in Wayne County and then later on the state level.” Woodley has been a member of the Wayne County Medical Society’s Legislative Committee since its inception in 1979.

1960s

Rogelio Pardo-Evans (Residency 1968) practices medicine and teaches at the Hospital San Juan de Dios in San Jose, Costa Rica, his native country. In 1998 he was appointed Minister of Health for Costa Rica and president of the Costa Rican Cancer Institute. He lives in San Jose with his wife, Susan Maurer, and their three children. He can be reached by e-mail at rpardo@pop.racsa.co.cr or rpardo@gobnet.go.cr or by home phone at (506) 235-2424.

1970s

Lewis A. Jones Jr. (M.D. 1978) was selected to be listed in the 1999 edition of Marquis Who’s Who in the World. A lengthy profile of Jones and his work appeared in the September 29, 1999 issue of The Michigan Chronicle.

Gerald B. Zelenock (M.D. 1973, Residency 1978) has joined William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak as chief of surgical services and chairman of the Department of Surgery after 30 years at the University of Michigan where he was most recently professor of vascular surgery. During his career at Michigan he was the author of 90 articles and 50 book chapters, and he edited nine books. He is currently a reviewer for the journals Surgery and Journal of Vascular Surgery.

1980s

Ronald L. VanderLaan (M.D. 1982) is the new president of the 1,000-member medical staff of Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids. He practiced with Grand Valley Cardiology Specialists from 1987 to 1999. He took his fellowship program in cardiovascular disease with the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and, before that, completed his internship and residency programs at Blodgett Memorial Medical Center (now Spectrum Health-East Campus) and Saint Mary’s Hospital in Grand Rapids. He was chief medical resident at Saint Mary’s in 1984. He is the immediate past president of the Michigan Society of Internal Medicine.

1990s

John A. Sandin (M.D. 1993) is in the chief year of his neurosurgery residency at the University of Wisconsin. He can be reached by e-mail at jsspines@yahoo.com or by phone at (608) 277-1099.

Todd B. Wampler (M.D. 1996) has received the F. William Barrows Award for Colorado Family Medicine Resident of the Year from the Colorado Academy of Family Physicians. He completed his residency in family medicine last fall at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. He is currently practicing at Buckley Air National Guard base in Aurora, Colorado, where he is fulfilling a military commitment. He lives in Fort Collins with his wife, Heidi, a student in veterinary medicine, and his daughters Kelcie, age nine, and Megan, age three. He can be reached by e-mail at twampler@pol.net or by phone at (970) 206-4550. ‰

Deaths

George Ablin (M.D. 1948), neurosurgeon, on June 8, 1999, in Bakersfield, California.

John A. Jacquez, M.D., on October 16, 1999, at University Hospital in Ann Arbor. Jacquez retired from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1990 as professor emeritus of physiology and from the School of Public Health as professor emeritus of biostatistics. A 1947 graduate of the Cornell Medical School, he came to Ann Arbor in 1962 from the Sloan Kettering Institute to establish a Department of Biomedical Data Processing, and was a leading authority on compartmental analysis. He was 77.

Neil M. Kalter (Ph.D. 1971), on October 23, 1999, at his home in Ann Arbor. A professor of psychology and psychiatry, he taught courses in advanced statistics, research methods, child psychopathology, family therapy and parent loss. He was director of the University Center for the Child and Family from 1987-92. His work included the clinical supervision of psychiatry residents and fellows as well as trainees in psychology and social work. His contributions to the scientific literature included a wide array of journal articles and book chapters on topics including psychological tests, research methods and statistical analyses, children’s understanding of their disturbed peers, and the impact of divorce and parent death on children. He was the author of Growing Up with Divorce (1990). He was 57.

Carol Jo Godoshian Ragsdale (M.D. 1972), on August 10, 1999, in Ann Arbor, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. She was an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Michigan Medical School until 1993.

A. Kenneth Stolpman (M.D. 1931), on August 13, 1999, in Beverly Hills. A gynecologist and obstetrician, Stolpman practiced medicine in Birmingham for 55 years, starting in 1935. During World War II he served as a medical officer to the WAVES program at Indiana University and as a surgeon on the USS Arneb. He left the Navy with the rank of lieutenant commander. While at the University of Michigan, he earned a varsity letter in fencing. He was 91.

“Always on My Shoulder”: Dermatologist Tom Waldinger Honors a Treasured Mentor

When Tom Waldinger’s (M.D. 1980) mentor and partner in practice for five years, the late John L. Ulrich, M.D., died in November, 1997, Waldinger was left with the feeling that something was required of him, that he needed, through some form of remembrance, to come to terms with the loss of his dear friend. The result is The Wisdom of Life Through My Patients, a collection of thoughts about the meaning of life as written by Waldinger’s patients, along with eight poems written by Waldinger himself.

One of the book’s contributors, a patient of Waldinger’s and a volunteer in his office, is Bette Mys, a teacher of the blind who befriended musician Stevie Wonder as a fifth-grade student in Detroit many years ago and who has maintained a lifelong friendship with him. When Mys shared the book with Wonder, the singer was inspired to set Waldinger’s poems, and more than a dozen not in the book, to music. The resulting recording, Stretch our Souls, will be released some time this year. A second book of philosophical inspiration by Waldinger, which he is still working on, will have the same title, a phrase he has used in more than one of his poems.

Waldinger, who specializes in geriatric dermatology and skin cancer in his private practice in Dearborn, lives in Ann Arbor with his wife, Marcy, an administrator with the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, and their two children, Jason and Emily.