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reunion by Kevin McKeough C 32 | WINT ER 2 011 2010 ALUMNI REUNION WEEKEND OLLEGE OF MEDICINE REUNIONS always provide occasions to examine the future challenges of medicine and to both share memories and catch up with fellow alumni. Those in attendance this year, from Oct. 21–23, also learned about planned renovations to Illinois Medicine's facilities and attended panel discussions about how the college is helping meet diverse challenges like urban medicine and liver disease. Members of the reunion classes, including the golden anniversary class of 1960, gathered Thursday for a welcome reception at the Hotel InterContinental in downtown Chicago. "Medicine has made extraordinary advances over the past decades, and reunion in part is a reminder of how far our profession has come since we were students," said Joseph A. Flaherty '68, MD '71, Res '75, dean of the College of Medicine. On Friday, activities included presentations and tours, concluding with the Alumni Awards Dinner. There, fourth-year student Caroline Novak spoke movingly about how scholarships enabled her to attend medical school despite the financial difficulties her family faced following the death of her father during her senior year as an undergraduate. "I cannot express the relief and gratitude I felt when I knew that medical school would be feasible for me," she said. "I have had an absolutely incredible experience, and I am excited to begin my career in medicine with a solid clinical foundation built at this institution." Reunion weekend concluded Saturday morning with the inaugural Best Docs Panel, a discussion featuring members of the Illinois Medicine faculty who have been chosen for inclusion in The Best Doctors in America and America's Top Doctors physician guides. Because October was National Liver Awareness Month, the panel featured physicians practicing at Illinois Medicine's Walter Payton Liver Center, named in honor of the legendary Chicago Bears running back, who died of liver disease. "The hospital was doing great work. People of all kinds were being helped and healed, and people needed to know about it," said panelist Connie Payton, Walter Payton's widow, explaining why her family lent her late husband's name to the center. "We're blessed to be a blessing." Members of the Class of 1960 (pictured left to right) F IRS T ROW: (front) Carroll Loomis, Howie Allen, Stan Bugeski, Fern Lichite-Cotrell, James Creath S ECOND ROW: Jordan Waxman, David Taylor, Stanley Braydon, Bernie Blaauw, Noel Bass, Glen Tomlinson, Alex Doolas, David Yashon THIRD ROW: Victor Feldman, Stuart Lerman, Herbert Svab, Joanne Hoover, Stuart Wilson, Richard Spellberg, Robert Rockey, Bob Hickerson Jr., Charles Salesman FOURTH ROW: Edgar Feldman, Al Holderness, David Fouts, Alan Olson, Gene Hoerr F I F TH ROW: David Sackett, Bernie Carpenter, Milt Schayes, Peter Baker, Harold Labinsky, Paul Goldstein S I X TH ROW: Mel Goldstein, Mitch Tarkoff, Arnold Brodey, V.S. Kent, Marty Blumberg, Stuart Levin, Truman Anderson PHOTOS: DIANE SMUTNEY