The 2011 SAE alcohol-related death spurred me on to learn more about current Cornell Greek life. The dean’s office was clamping down on fraternities, Dan Galusha ’72 was tiring after heading up the GTPA for the last 25 years, and the chapter was in the throes of both the installation of a much-needed fullhouse heating system and the design of a university-mandated total-house sprinkler, the latter required by the end of 2014. Nick Carino ’69 and I, along with others, including Charlie Parker ’57, Paul Deignan ’62, Dave Kelly ’73, Steve Schaeffer ’73, Vinny Serpico ’73, Chuck Grundner ’75, and Jaan Janes ’85, decided to roll up our sleeves and jump in head first to attack the multiple problems at hand. It’s been a tough haul but well worth it. The kids in the house have been fantastic to work with. Cornell remains an intense pressure-cooker school, and Greek life in general and Sigma Nu specifically must stay strong both as places where lifelong friendships are forged and as safety nets for struggling students.
In my second life, I retired from my office-based internal medicine/geriatrics practice at the end of 2007 and went on to write an award-winning book, The Rise & Fall of the American Medical Empire. Most recently, I’ve been heading up my local hospital’s Center for Innovation and teaching at Yale School of Medicine. Mentoring Cornell undergrads and Yale med students has been an interesting transition, but I have always loved teaching. The last wrinkle has been managing two houses in the U.S. Virgin Islands, one of which my brother, Rick ’75, and I built in 2012 on land our father purchased in the 1950s. On stressful, cold days in Connecticut, I just Google On a Clear Day … in St. John, lean back, and dream.”