November, 2019
Williams, for me, is a love story that began fifty-three years ago and it has unfolded in very meaningful chapters ever since. I had a vague sense of family tradition, as my grandfather, Beverley Montague Eyre (Old BM, Class of ’13) and my uncle Bill Eyre (Class of ’47) were graduates, however many other alumni whom I admired sparked a more acute interest in Williams during my high school years. I was probably not your typical Williams candidate of the 1960s. My father did not go to college, and my mother got her college degree(s) after I was in elementary school, working two jobs as a school nurse and as a nursing supervisor in our local hospital. She was the primary source of income for our family. My parents both worked hard and instilled in me a real work ethic. I started a paper route at age 10 on my bike, had a regular clientele for Charles Chips, and at a very young age I started doing the billing and racket stringing for the local club pro in exchange for tennis lessons. At age 15, I started teaching tennis. When I spoke with my high school guidance counselor about colleges, I recall that she only mentioned the schools in the New York State public system. I had a different idea, and during the summer after my junior year, I drove to Williamstown from Long Island armed with my high school transcript. As I drove up the Taconic Parkway, I was entranced by the beauty of the mountains and the Purple Valley. The campus looked like what I envisioned a college should be. Those were the halcyon days where Fred Copeland was able to offer me admission during the interview, and I never looked back. I think he knew that the Berkshire Symphony needed a tuba player.
My four years at Williams were marked by what seemed like endless science labs, wonderful friendships, and a deep appreciation of the art department. Lane Faison became my mentor and the greatest lifelong influence on my interest in writing.
The summer after graduation, Sean Sloane (tennis coach) put together a staff of Williams tennis players to teach at the Laver-Emerson-Stolle adult tennis camp at the Mount Washington Hotel. There was one female staff member who became ill before the start of the camp and Katie Jacobs (’73) got a last minute call from Sean. I met her the day she arrived at the hotel and decided that day that this was the woman I would marry. We returned to the camp the following summer as husband and wife. It didn’t hurt that her father, Paul Jacobs (’39), was a devoted alum. In his eyes, Williams men could do no wrong.
After medical school at the University of Virginia, we returned to the Boston area for my residency, and I never wanted to leave the intellectual and medical environment that I experienced. I had a very gratifying career that spanned being a division chief at several Harvard teaching hospitals, establishing a basic science lab, and having a very busy urological surgery practice from which I just retired this June after 39 years. With five years of funding from the NIH many years ago, we studied HIV in the male reproductive tract, publishing many findings that were considered controversial then but have become solid scientific knowledge today. I served our national organization on several committees over the years (ethics, investment, nominating) and was president of the New England Section of the American Urological Association in 2007-2008. However, what makes me most proud is the two generations of urologists I have mentored during their residencies, and the countless number of patients whose lives I have been privileged to impact in a meaningful way. This includes three Williams professors with various cancer diagnoses.
Our three sons all graduated from Williams and two of them married Williams classmates, so there might be some pressure for our grandchildren (5 now, 6th due in February) to at least look at the school.
Since retiring four months ago, I have continued to do some writing (a new chapter on the Genitourinary System for a legal malpractice reference volume, revising chapters I wrote for UpToDate) and advising at Harvard Med School. I am tremendously excited that I will be spending January in Williamstown as an adjunct faculty member teaching a Winter Study course on Ethics in Surgical Practice. I will also be working with the college art museum on a collaborative effort they have established with some medical schools to teach students how to critically look at and describe works of art to help them develop communication skills. This opportunity to give back to the college I love and to impact young minds in a meaningful way is beyond gratifying, as I feel that Williams was one of the most important influences on the trajectory of my career, and, frankly, on my adult life.
During the times we have been able to gather as a class in Williamstown in recent years, I have been moved to hear about the successes and adversities that many of us have faced with grace and wisdom. It has also been painfully obvious how much we miss and treasure those classmates who we have lost. As we approach our 50th, we have much to be proud of and much to be grateful for. Let’s have a fabulous reunion in 2021.