Three classmates named Brown checked in from around the globe.
Art writes, “My research was with a team in northern Thailand studying leprosy. The power of stigma slapped me hard when I met a businessman in his rice paddy, living there hoping his absence from home would allow his daughters to avoid people’s reaction to his disfigured face.
“After marrying Linda, also a doctor, we returned to Thailand—she to a government hospital on the Khmer border and me in a refugee camp. Linda gave birth to our son in her hospital. We moved to the capital, which allowed us to join an Army research group. There, we ran a malaria unit for Thai near Laos. We also were joined by a daughter, who now lives in Oregon with her own child. Despite my anti-military sentiment of the 1960s, I joined the Army. From malaria, our focus shifted to HIV, and we were eventually working in Thailand to organize a 16,000-person trial of the vaccines. We’re now back in Bangkok, where Linda is still enjoying her career and I’m retired.”
Mike tells us, “I’m married with a 33-year-old daughter. My wife, Anita, and I retired three years ago after coaching diving together at the University of Hawaii. We live a healthy lifestyle with no drinking or drugs, eat mostly organic, and don’t have a cell phone. We walk every day, focused on the metaphysical and magical. We don’t watch TV. We enter the ocean often for exercise and discover the amazing sea life by snorkeling (cetaceans are our favorites). We also encounter monk seals, turtles, octopus, and occasionally sharks. It seems we all get along together and hope humans can catch on.”
Alan writes, “My six years in Hanover (two at the Medical School) led to lasting friendships and began my married life. I met Sally there. We eloped and married in the Hanover Town Clerk’s office. Despite that inauspicious beginning, we celebrated our 50th anniversary in 2023. After completing my cardiology training at Harvard in 1981, we moved to Santa Barbara, California, where I practiced clinical and interventional cardiology for 35 years. Our kids, Dan ’03 and Lauren ’05, both graduated from Dartmouth. In response to 9/11, Dan joined the Marine Corps and served three deployments in the Middle East as a Cobra helicopter pilot. He now works for Amazon Web Services. Lauren completed medical training and now resides with her family in Bozeman, Montana.
“Dan’s service prompted me to request an age waiver and join the Navy Medical Reserve in 2002. I served as surgeon for a U.S. Marine Corps Recon Battalion and deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, from 2009 to 2010. I retired in 2021. Sally and I enjoy the quiet life in Santa Barbara. We’ve resumed post-pandemic travel. Last September we joined the Avellones on a hiking trip in the Canadian Rockies.”
Submissions from other Browns will appear in an e-newsletter concurrent with this issue.
—Stuart Zuckerman, P.O. Box 85, Bridgehampton, NY 11932; (917) 559-0063 stuartz@gmail.com