Class Note 1979
Issue
March-April 2023
Gary Simonds, M.D., was originally at Walter Reed Army Military Medical Center, then Geisinger Medical Clinic in Pennsylvania, and later headed a program at Virginia Tech. He recently retired from neurosurgery after he “ran into sequelae of an acute disseminated encephalomyelitis sustained many years ago.”
He decided to put away the scalpel when he started seeing double in the middle of his operations. Now Gary teaches Virginia Tech undergraduates and medical students when not writing and hiking the North Carolina mountains. Regarding writing, after having published three nonfiction books on burnout in healthcare, Gary has now written his first novel.
“Death’s Pale Flag,” Gary writes, “is about a—you guessed it—neurosurgeon who starts experiencing (or thinks he is experiencing) ghosts. I’m hoping to immerse the reader in the world of modern medicine and neurosurgery, exploring the tragedies that fall upon people and the effects tragedy has on those who care for them and, perhaps, make it a bit of a spooky read. It should be out in April-May. Yeah, I managed to make myself busier than I had planned (I had grand designs on writing for several hours every day, playing my guitar and banjo, and learning the fiddle and bagpipes, but find myself mostly teaching and advising for now). Great life though—much more south of the Mason-Dixon line than I would have ever imagined but Black Mountain is in a great corner of the North Carolina mountains.”
Karen Loeffler writes, “Alaska is really an adventure-a-day type of place. My 79th Day photograph in the class newsletter last year was from a beautiful 12-mile fat-bike ride out to Spenser glacier. It was off-road accessible in the winter riding over the glacial outflow. Summer adventures involved kayaking in Prince William Sound.
“I even had Laurie Laidlaw and Jim for dinner at my house as they headed out to go fishing. Getting back to some of my Dartmouth skills, I was coaching a local high school tennis team that made it to the state tennis championship! Go West High Eagles—state champions! In early November I happily enjoyed our first good snowfall and was glad to be back out on my cross-country skis. This winter I am training to ski the Norwegian Birkebeiner in March, then trekking to Everest base camp in April. Did I mention retirement rocks?!”
Stanley Weil shared, “After hounding you all for news as Janie’s predecessor, I thought I’d contribute a paragraph of my own for a change. Following a long career in the publishing industry I’ve kept busy wearing various class volunteer hats, assisting high-schoolers with college entrance essays and caring for my 91-year-old mother. My three N.Y.C.-based children are happy, healthy, and gainfully employed. My daughter got married in May and my oldest son got engaged in October. Still keeping up with classmates, including lunch with Steve Witzel, Dave Wilson, and Mark Sullivan most recently.
—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com
He decided to put away the scalpel when he started seeing double in the middle of his operations. Now Gary teaches Virginia Tech undergraduates and medical students when not writing and hiking the North Carolina mountains. Regarding writing, after having published three nonfiction books on burnout in healthcare, Gary has now written his first novel.
“Death’s Pale Flag,” Gary writes, “is about a—you guessed it—neurosurgeon who starts experiencing (or thinks he is experiencing) ghosts. I’m hoping to immerse the reader in the world of modern medicine and neurosurgery, exploring the tragedies that fall upon people and the effects tragedy has on those who care for them and, perhaps, make it a bit of a spooky read. It should be out in April-May. Yeah, I managed to make myself busier than I had planned (I had grand designs on writing for several hours every day, playing my guitar and banjo, and learning the fiddle and bagpipes, but find myself mostly teaching and advising for now). Great life though—much more south of the Mason-Dixon line than I would have ever imagined but Black Mountain is in a great corner of the North Carolina mountains.”
Karen Loeffler writes, “Alaska is really an adventure-a-day type of place. My 79th Day photograph in the class newsletter last year was from a beautiful 12-mile fat-bike ride out to Spenser glacier. It was off-road accessible in the winter riding over the glacial outflow. Summer adventures involved kayaking in Prince William Sound.
“I even had Laurie Laidlaw and Jim for dinner at my house as they headed out to go fishing. Getting back to some of my Dartmouth skills, I was coaching a local high school tennis team that made it to the state tennis championship! Go West High Eagles—state champions! In early November I happily enjoyed our first good snowfall and was glad to be back out on my cross-country skis. This winter I am training to ski the Norwegian Birkebeiner in March, then trekking to Everest base camp in April. Did I mention retirement rocks?!”
Stanley Weil shared, “After hounding you all for news as Janie’s predecessor, I thought I’d contribute a paragraph of my own for a change. Following a long career in the publishing industry I’ve kept busy wearing various class volunteer hats, assisting high-schoolers with college entrance essays and caring for my 91-year-old mother. My three N.Y.C.-based children are happy, healthy, and gainfully employed. My daughter got married in May and my oldest son got engaged in October. Still keeping up with classmates, including lunch with Steve Witzel, Dave Wilson, and Mark Sullivan most recently.
—Janie Simms Hamner, 7327 Centenary Ave., Dallas, TX 75225; jshandkids@aol.com