P&S Journal: Fall 1997, Vol.17, No.3
ALUMNI WEEKEND
Class of '47 Turns 50

From left: Grange S. Coffin'47, Jean L. Cook'47, Anthony B. Felice'47, and Morton Creditor'47 at their 50th reunion

Some strained to read the name tags, others recognized each other at a snap, bald spots and wrinkles notwithstanding. Old friendships were rekindled and a half century fell away with a wink and a sip of Chablis as members of the Class of 1947 and spouses gathered at the Harmonie Club to reminisce. The unmistakable hearty laugh of Helen Ranney rang out. The celebrated emeritus professor and chairman of medicine at the University of California at San Diego and the first woman to hold such a position in the United States, had been back many times to deliver lectures and accept encomia but was delighted to reconnect with classmates. New York native Morton Creditor, emeritus professor of medicine at the University of Kansas, another class star, recalled how he left New York in uniform, required attire for all enlisted men in the class. "With World War II still raging," he recalled, "we went to school without a break from Jan. 1, 1944, virtually until we graduated in the spring of 1947 with very little in the way of holidays or vacations."

The Class of 1947 spread into all domains of clinical and academic medicine and settled throughout the country, with one member, Jean L. Cook, following a distinguished career as emeritus associate professor of medicine and former associate dean for students at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, retiring to Nice, France. Peter Beck traveled the world as a ship's doctor. William G. Abel III served as a former mayor of East Hampton, N.Y. Joseph M. DiCaprio capped off a career in infectious diseases, epidemiology, microbiology, and public health with his current passion of composing terse poetry in Japanese haiku.