Chapter XI Atlanta. Georgia: July 30, 1967 to August 30, 1986)
A BRIEF HISTORY OF CDC Dr. Joseph W. Mountin, of the Public Health Service (PHS), led the way to found and organize the Communicable Disease Center (CDC), in Atlanta, Georgia, on July 1, 1946. The predecessor of CDC was a Malaria Control in War Areas organization which kept the southeastern states malaria free during World War II. The purpose of the new institution wwas to include all communicable diseases. CDC would also provide practical help whenever called by State Health Departments. The new agency was a branch of the U.S. Public Health Service. Atlanta was chosen for its location because malaria was endemic in the Southern United States. Offices were located on the sixth floor of the Volunteer Building on Peachtree Street. The main jobs at CDC were originally entomology and engineering. In 1947, CDC made a token payment of $10 to Emory University for 15 acres of land on Clifton Road in DeKalb County, the home of CDC headquarters today. The mission of CDC expanded beyond its original focus on malaria to include sexually transmitted diseases when the Venereal Disease Division of the PHS was transferred to the CDC in 1957. Shortly thereafter, Tuberculosis Control was transferred in 1960 to the CDC from PHS, and then in 1963 the Immunization program was established. In 1949, Dr. Alexander Langmuir headed the Epidemiology Branch. He launched the first ever disease surveillance program and created CDC’s Epidemiological Intelligence Service (EIS). he first class of EIS officers arrived in Atlanta for training in 1951 and pledged to go wherever they were called for the next two years. EIS officers were essentially disease detectives who ferreted out the cause of disease outbreaks anywhere on our plamet. Effective on July 1, 1967 CDC became the National Communicable Disease Center (NCDC). effective July 1, 1967. The organization was renamed the Center for Disease Control (CDC) on June 24, 1970, and Centers for Disease Control effective on October 14, 1980. An act of the United States Congress appended the words and Prevention to the name effective on October 27, 1992. However, Congress directed that the initialism CDC be retained because of its name recognition. CDC at present operates under the Department of Health and Human Services umbrella.
NATE: CDC Being that I had to find a new position, I first called George Bowers to ask if I could use him as a reference for a new possession. I believe that I also got in touch with some other people. Several hours after I called George Bowers, I received a telephone call from Joe Boutwell, who was now Deputy Chief of the Medical Laboratory Section, Laboratory Improvement Program , Bureau of Laboratories, National Communicable Disease Center [CDC, now the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but still CDC]. Gerald R. Cooper, M.D., Ph.D., was the Chief of the Medical Laboratory Section . I became acquainted with Gerald Cooper at past annual AACC meetings. I was asked if I would be interested in a position at CDC. It was not long before I received an invitation to come to Atlanta to visit CDC a consultant. As a consultant, my expenses would be paid. I believe that it was sometime in April, 1967, that on a Sunday, my wife and I flew to Atlanta. Having a window seat on the airliner, as we approached the airport, I wondered where the city was as all I saw were tree tops. I had flown into Atlanta previously, but that was at night. After spending the next day as part of a ad hoc committee at CDC, I flew out of Atlanta at night. Over the years since 1967, metropolitan Atlanta has grown and one no longer has the impression of a city with many trees when approaching the airport.
We rented a car and found our way to the Sheraton Emory Inn, which was across the street from the main buildings off CDC. On our arrival at the inn, there was a note from Alan Mather, who was now on the staff at CDC. The note was an invitation from Alan and Rose Mather to come to their home for a reception in our honor. We spent a pleasant few hours with the Mathers and some of the clinical chemists on the staff at CDC. Before retiring for the night at the inn, I was called by Gerald Cooper. Gerald told me that he was conducting a workshop class of medical technologists and he asked me to talk about standards the next day. Of course, this I did.
At CDC, I had a tour of the Center. Also, Joe Boutwell escorted me on a tour of the city of Atlanta. I was finally ushered into the office of U. Pentti Kokko, M.D., the head of the Bureau of Laboratories. It was there that I was offered a position with the starting level of GS-14, Level 2. In discussions with Gerald Cooper, Joe Boutwell, and George Bowdoin, Administrator in the Medical Laboratory Section, I was asked if I would like to head a unit for the standardization of cholesterol or an evaluation unit which would conduct proficient testing of clinical chemistry laboratories. I thought that the latter option would be very challenging so I selected heading an evaluation unit. My starting date would be July 1, 1967, being that paperwork for a civil service job and an official offer would take several months.
During that time we were waiting for the official offer and my official acceptance, I was called by Joe Boutwell and had my first assignment for CDC. I was to visit the Connecticut Health Department, in Hartford. At this time, I am not sure what I was assigned to do but I suspect that it had to do with the laboratory improvement programs in Connecticut.
1458 SHEFFIELD DRIVE We were reasonably certain that a definite job offer was coming from CDC. This had been enhanced by constant communication with Joe Boutwell. After the school year ended in Harrisburg, during the month of June, 1967, we drove to Atlanta to look for housing. We had reserved a room at the Sheraton-Emory Inn. When I had the job offer in April, conversations at the Medical Laboratory Section about housing indicated that the better area schools were in DeKalb County, which was east of Atlanta. Galla and I were in favor of renting an apartment for a while until we became acquainted with the city and area around it. Jared and Rachel pleaded for us to purchase a house. I do not know how it came about, but we ended up at the Milton Kuniansky Realty Company on Briarcliff Road, which is close to the intersection with Lavista Road. Later we were to find that Briarcliff and Lavista Roads crossed again further to the east. A real estate agent, Roland Sternthall, spent a good part of a day with us. He drove to various sites for us to view houses in DeKalb County. The first house we visited was on Sheffield Drive. Ihe house was of contemporary design. We then looked at other houses on sale. All were of a traditional design that seemed to be characteristic of the area. All the houses for sale that we visited were close to the price we could afford. Along the way between sites, the hat we purchased for Rachel at Yellowstone Park, and cherished by her, blew off her head and disappeared out of the open car window. Rachel was a bit unhappy that the hat was lost, but we could not and did not search for it. We decided that we wanted to look at the house on Sheffield Drive again. This house had similarities to the house we were planning to build in Harrisburg.
Without much ado, on Monday, June 19, 1967, we plunked down a check for $500, which was to indicate that we were interested in buying the house. I do not remember the asking price but we settled for $25,500.00. The closing date was set for Friday, June 30, 1967. At the Jewish Community Center, on Peachtree Road, which we visited during this stay in Atlanta, after asking for the name of a lawyer, Sidney Parks was recommended. A visit with Sidney Parks at his office led to an agreement for him to represent us at the closing. We made arrangements with the Georgia Power Company to supply us with electricity and the Southern Bell tel & Tel Company to install a telephone. There was no need to go to a gas company as the house was all electrically powered. On Thursday, June 22, 1967 we opened a checking account at the The Citizens & Southern Emory Bank (C&S) with a deposit of $17,000.00. Then we issued a C&S check of $2,895.17 for a new account at the Decatur Federal Savings and Loan Association. On te same day, we also signed a sales contract with Thibadeau, Shaw and Company, Inc., along with the co-agency of Milton Kuniansky Realty Company, for the purchase of the house at 1458 Sheffield Drive, NE, Atlanta, GA 30329. At Davison’s Department Store in Atlanta, which was part of the Macy’s organization, our Macy’s credit card was accesptable. Next, we went to the large Atlanta department store, Rich’s, where we were issued a credit card immediately being that I would be employed at CDC. On Friday, June 23, 1967, we issued a C&S check to the Sheraton-Emory Inn for $86.89. Then we left for Harrisburg.
Once we were back in Harrisburg we arranged with the North American Van lines to move us to Atlanta. We only had several days to get ready for this event. On Monday, June 26, Galla and I breathed a sigh of relief when we received a letter from Albert R. Martin, Personnel Management Specialist, National Communicable Disease, Atlanta, Georgia. This letter dated June 23, 1967, confirmed the oral job offer by Dr. Kokko. The text of this letter is as follows:
We are pleased to offer you the position of Supervisory Research Chemist, GS-1320-14, Srep 4, at $16,675 per annum to become effective July 2, 1967. This position will serve as Chief, Evaluation Unit, Medical laboratory Section, Laboratory Improvement Program.
Please report to Room 114, Building B, for entrance on dutyand processing on Monday, July 3, 1967.
We look forward to having you join the Center’s staff.
As quickly as I could do so, I confirmed the receipt of the above letter and my acceptance of the position which was offered. We now packed with the knowledge it was not for naught. The last checks from the Harrisburg National Bank & Trust Company account were as follows:
June 27, 1967 North American Van Lines (Certified Check) $600
After the moving company finished emptying our Scottsdale Apartment ee headed for Atlanta to arrive at the Sheraton-Emory Inn on Thursday, June 29, 1967. At the closing process on Friday, June 30, 1967, we issued the following checks from our C&S account:
June 30, 1967 Decatur Federal S&L $15.00
June 30, 1967 Thibadeau, Shaw and Company, Inc. $112.00
June 30, 1967 Milton Kuniansky (Realty Company) $918.00
June 30, 1967 Sidney Parks, Attorney $272.50
We were able to assume the previous owner’s Decatur Federal S&L 25-year 6.00% mortgage. Our check of $3,451.31 was for Don Smith, the previous owner of the house on Sheffield Drive, and essentially was our down paymment for the house. The reason for the payments to two real estate companies was that Don Smith changed agents during the time his house was on sale. We also paid the representative from Decatur Federal S&L a small fee and our first monthly mortgage payment. Our monthly mortgage payments would be $184.32.
On Saturday,July 1, 1967 our total available assets included $12, 368.14 in our checking and savings accounts, and the total of $774.27 in Jared’s and Rachel’s bank accounts.
A bit east of the Atlanta city line in DeKalb. County the north-south Briarcliff Road intersects the
east-west Lavista Road. Sheffield Drive comes off of Briarcliff Road north of Lavista Road and off of Lavista Road east of Briarcliff Road. Our home at 1458 Sheffield Drive was on a lot which was at, and outside of, the point where the road changed directions. A surveyor’s map of the lot on which our house was located had five sides, or one might think of this lot as an asymmetric pentagon. On the map, the bottom of the figure was 60 feet along Sheffield Drive. The left leg of this asymmetric pentagon was at an obtuse angle and 180 feet long. The right leg was 165 feet long. The top left leg was at an obtuse angle and 74 feet long and the right top leg.also at an obtuse angle, was 131 feet long. One might visualize the shape of the lot as a wedge from a pie in which the inner-point had been lopped off. Because the neighbor’s property on the right sloped upward at a sharp angle a retaining wall was in place along our adjoining properties. Our lot and the neighbor’s lot on the left sloped downwared fron the street. Not-so-well-kept rose bushes separated our property from the property on the left. The downward slope permitted the rear of our split-entry house to have the upper and lower levels above the ground. The concrete driveway and two-car carport was to the right of the house. The carport was further back on the lot than the rear of the house. The back of the carport had a storage shed with doorws on the left and right sides. The lawn area behind the rear of the house was relatively small. There was a precipitous drop of our property from the rear of the lawn area. At the bottom of the dropped area the property adjoined the property of the St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church. Large pine trees apparently stabilized the soil on the steep slope behind the house. There was a chain-link fence at the left of the carport and a gate where several stone steps enabled one to have access to the rear of the house.
Green paint covered the flat wooden surfaces of the house. The doorway at the center of the front of the house had a white door on the right and to the left of the door there was vertical narrow translucent glass panel and two wooden white panels. At the front of the house the lower level had narrow rectangular windows above ground. At the front of the house the upper level projected about two feet beyond the lower level. Once inside the the house one was struck by how light it was because of a skylight above the entry. There was a coat closet to the left. Along the left wall there were about six or seven steps to reach the upper level and to th right there were six or seven steps down to the lower level. Four by 12 inch beams held up the cathedral ceiling throughout the upper level of the house. The ceiling itself was made of tongue and groove lumber. Both the beams and the ceiling boards were painted white. On the upper level immediately to the left of the top of the stairs there was an open doorway to the kitchen. On the opposite wall of the kitchen there was an open doorway to a dining area. The front of the house walls of the kitchen and dining area had narrow rectangular windows high up on the wall. The dining area was open to the living room which extended from the left wall of the of the house to the wall on the right of the stairway. The back wall of the living room had large square picture windows and two sliding glass doors opposite of the stairway. These glass doors opened to a deck which rested on extended 4 x12 inch beams. The erntire upper level rested on 4 x 12 inch beams. Between the wall with the kitchen doorway and the dining area there was a large yellow brick wood-burning fireplace. To the right of the living area there was a short hallway. A bathroom and a small bedroom, which had a door at the end of the hall, were at the front of the house. The bathroom and the bedroom had narrow record rectangular windows high up on the walls. The front bedroom also had a large square window on the right wall of the house. A door on the left side of the hall was the entryway to the master bedroom. The back wall of the master bedroom and the right side wall had square picture windows. The lower-level of the house essentially had the same plan as the upper level. However, below the kitchen and dining area there was a utility room which had a counter with cabinets and a sink on the outside wall. At the back end of this room there was an electric water heater. The heating system of the entire house consisted of electrical heating elements along the wall baseboards. On the lower level, the recreation room and the large bedroom at the back of the house had square picture windows. Also at the right side of the recreation room back wall there were two glass sliding doors which led to a concrete apron below the deck above. The recreation room also had a yellow brick fireplace which extended to the fireplace duplicate at the upper level.
If there can be a love-hate relationship with an inanimate object such as a house then this is what I had for the next 21 years. Although the plan of the house did not match the plan we evolved with the architect in Harrisburg, there were enough similarities to satisfy our desires. However, there were flaws in the construction which caused the need for repairs constantly.
We left the closing process with the keys to the house. Before going to the house we stopped for some grocery shopping. We were about to begin a new phase of my career and our lives in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Late in the day, we went on a shopping spree at the Rich’s department store. Our purchases included a refrigerator, (($568.56), a washing machine ($273.98), a clothes dryer ($223.51), and a dishwasher ($283.31). The cost for a plumber to install the clothes washer and dryer was $24.72. The total cost for the appliances was $1,376.08.
Sleeping bags were among the gear packed into our station wagon. We used our sleeping bags in our house until our furniture arrived on Monday, July 3, 1967. As Rachel had the smalleer bedroom in our house in Rochester, she chose the larger bedroom in back of the lower-level. This time Jared had the bedroom smaller than the one in Rochester. When we awoke in the morning and took a real look at the inside of the house there was a feeling of remorse. Besides dirt, closet rods that were bowed and crayon scrolls all over the walls in the two bedrooms on the lower-level, other findings made us wonder what we got ourselves into. So, nn Saturday, July 1, 1967, we all pitched in on the beginning of a thorough cleaning throughout the house. We visited a hardware store and our purchases included paint, paint brushes, and cleaning supplies. Before our furniture arrived, Jared and Rachel painted the walls in their rooms
On Monday morning, July 3, 1967, I reported to the Personnel Office where I was exposed to the rites of becoming a U.S. Civil Service employee. Once all the paperwork was cleared, I went to the Medical Laboratory Section office. After being greeted, Gerald Cooper told me to go home for the rest of that week to get ourselves settled in our new home. Dr. Cooper told me that once t come back next week there will be much for me to do.
At home, getting settled occupied us for most of the summer. Purchases: included closet rod brackets, hardware, lumber, key copis, paint and more paint, paint brushes, ladders, a hose and nozzle,, caulk, hooks, lamps for Jared and Rachel, a lawn mower and gas can, garbage cans, tools, drape rods, and other items necessary to make the house a desirable home. A large mailbox and post replaced the rickety post and small mailbox between the driveway and our neighbor’s home to our right (looking at the house from the street), Iinstallation of glass door bathtub shower enclosures were substituted for shower curtains. We spent some time applying fresh coats of paint inside and outside of the house. There were repairs to be made and drape rods to be installed which kept me busy when not at work. All above occurred during the months of July, August, September, 1967.
The second bedroom on the upper level was used as a den or office. I built some simple cabinets which I placed along the house side wall. Above the cabinets from the window on the side wall to the front wall of the house I put up standards and brackets for bookshelves. I had a desk and Gala had a sewing machine in the room. The cabinet placed under the window had a hinged top and it served as a file cabinet for my documents and literature reprints.
As soon as I could do so, I built some wooden shatters which served to darken the utility room so that it could be used as a dark room for developing film. Jared and Rachel had asked us if they could take some money out of their bank accounts to buy an enlarger. Both Jared and Rachel did make use of the darkroom facility during their high school days. Jared’s interest in photography continued throughout his adult life.
NEIGHBORS It was not long after we moved into our new house that some of the residents on Sheffield Drive came to welcome us and when they left they said something like come see us. Most of them we did not see it again. Facing our house, the neighbors on our right were Leon and Elizabeth Kitchens who had daughters about the age of our children and they were Clarice, Becky, and Caroline. Leon was employed at Lockheed but stated that he never flew in an airliner. As far as we know, the Kitchens seemed not to take any travel vacations. Many years later, after we moved away from Sheffield Drive, we met the Kitchens at the Toco Hills and Leon told us they took a vacation which involved flying in an airliner. Actually, Galla and I did a lort of traveling and we could always count on the Kitchens to take into our house our delivered newspapers and mail. I also noted in our financial records that we rewarded Caroline with cash to house-sit when we were gone. We met Leon,s fatherwhowas a veteran of World War I. We were invited and attended the marriage of Becky at the Claimont Baptist Church.
Helen Adams, a widow, and her son Jeffrey lived in that house to our left. Helen was an agent employed at the Osborne Travel Agency. In 1983, Helen arranged our trip to China. We found that Helen was a good travel agent and some of our future trip were arranged by her. On retirement, Helen worked for a while with a small travel agency. We were saddened when Helen became ill and died. Jeffrey remained in residence in their house after Helen passed away. After a movie and dinner on a Saturday, when we drove on to our driveway the lights were on in the house and the front door was open. Galla and I went to the Adams house and asked Jeffrey if we can use the telephone to call the police. After making the call we went outside and stood at the curb of the street to await the police. Jeffrey came out with a shotgun and started heading for the house. Galli and I restrained him fearing that he could be hurt if there were criminals in the house. When the police came they did not find anyone in the house. It turns out, that when we were out, Jared and some friends came to the house for a while and when they left lights had not been turned off and the last one out of the house did not shut the front door tightly enough for it to lock. Apparently it was enough wind to cause the front door to open widely.
We did get to know the neighbors directly across the street from us. They lived in a large two-story house. Occasionally I would set out on their front lawn on a Sunday. We did join them several times and found that the man of the house had a porn shop in the city of Atlanta. An architect, employed by the renowned John Portman & Associates, and his family lived next to the Kitchens. Rachel baby-sat for them a number of times. Actually, Galla and I never met them. After we moved from Sheffield Drive, while shopping at the House of Denmark furniture store, we discovered that the salesman lived in a house on Sheffield Drive, a few houses away from our previous home.
NATE: CDC To describe my career in detail from July 3, 1967 to the August 30, 1986 , is difficult as my assignments changed quite often over my 20 years of service. In general, I was assigned to particpate in laboratory improvement programs.
After walking into the Medical Laboratory Section office on Monday, July 10, 1967, I was welcomed and light banter ensued. I believe that it was at that time I recommended Adrian Hainline, Ph.D., to head the cholesterol standardization program. Adrian was an active AACC member and a clinical chemist at the Cleveland Clinic. It wouldn’t be long before Adrian hainline accepted an offer to come to CDC. For a number of ensuing years the clinical chemists, Gerald Cooper, Joseph Boutwell, Al Mather, Adrian Hainline and myself, along with our spouses, occasionally met socially on a Saturday evening or a Sunday afternoon.
Joe Boutwell was to be my immediate supervisor. While I can visualize the section secretary, I cannot recall her name. However, Joe Boutwell’s secretary, Betty Minor, left an impression of bing cordial, competent, and just a very nice person. Joe Boutwell presented me with a binder which contained my first job description. George Bowdoin, apparently wrote my job description for Gerald R. Cooper. The job description for the Supervisory Research Chemist, Nathan Radin essentially was as follows :
The function of the Evaluation Unit is to design and conduct a program to maintain and improve clinical laboratory performance for the Bureau of Health services, other federal and military laboratories, State Health Departments, and selected an epidemiologic laboratories. The Chief of the Evaluation Unit receives only administrative direction from the Chief or Deputy Chief of the Medical Laboratory Section.
After reading the job description, in a future meeting with Joe Boutwell, I said something like am I expected to do something like all this. Joe Boutwell’s reply was something like if you think that’s bad, you should see my job description. Before proceeding to the area assigned to the Evaluation Unit, Joe Boutwell and I discussed the the mission of the unit that I was about to supervise.
I cannot describe in detail the events that took place after my discussion with Joe Boutwell. Carrying the binder with my job description, I went directly to the office which I shared with Mary Ann Mahaffey, the temporary head of the evaluation unit. Several days of discussion with Ms. Mahaffey enabled me to grasp the present activities of the unit. I sensed that Ms. Mahaffey, a medical technologist was reluctant to relinquish her temporary assignment as the Chief of the unit.. This was borne out in time when I realized that she had her own filing cabinet which contained documents 29pertaining to the unit mission. As I learned more about the past activities of the unit, I had to ask Ms. Mahaffey for a documentary or correspondence pertaining to the information I needed at the moment. The secretary in the unit office was a young lady named Maggie Rushton. She was very conscientious about her duties. I suspect that when a letter she typed was not perfect, she retyped it until she was satisfied that there were no mistakes. A large chemistry laboratory, across the hall from the unit offices, was the center of the unit activities. A memory lapse prevents me from identifying the number and the names of the technologists I supervised.
The mission of the unit was to evaluate clinical chemistry laboratory performance by proficiency testing techniques. Identical serum samples were sent to a group of clinical chemistry laboratories with instructions to determine the concentration levels of specified constituents and to send the results to the unit within a specified date. Rebecca L. Wiley, was a statistician has signed to the unit. Rebecca (Becky) performed the statistical analysis of the results for each constituent tested.. In the language of statistics, for each constituent tested by the group of laboratories, the mean of the results was compared to what was thought to be the true value in the submitted samples. Also if a result was within a specified number of standard deviations, the performance of the laboratory was deemed acceptable for the constituent tested. CDC educational workshops were vailable to aassist poorly performing laboratories
To have enough serum for evaluation samples, both animal and human blood were purchased from various commercial sources. Once a large pool of serum was prepared, various chemical tests were performed in the laboratory to determine the concentration levels of constituents to be tested by laboratories being evacuated. The major constituents to be tested consisted of such as glucose, urea nitrogen, creatinine, total protein, albumin, sodium, potassium, and cholesterol. Once we had base concentration values, we created separate pools from the master pool. In some cases, we added various constituents to individual pools to create samples with abnormal values. In the case of cholesterol, a burro, at the CDC animal farm was injected with Triton, causing high blood cholesterol concentrations. Thus, we were able to spike some pools to create abnormal cholesterol values in the serum samples to be evaluated. Sadly, it was not long after I came to CDC, I was notified by the technologist who went to the animal farm to collect some blood, a burro dropped dead. I suspect that causing increased levels of lipids was the cause of death. Serum pools were passed through Millipore filters to sterilize them to prevent deterioration by bacteria. we also added other substances to prevent the deterioration of the individual samples being sent out for evaluation. Five ml aliquots from various pools were dispensed into vials, which were then capped and sealed. Serum samples were being sent to a small number of hospital laboratories, the Indian Health Service hospital chemistry laboratories, some prison health service laboratories, and some military hospital laboratories.
I spent some time, in the laboratory when I could do so, observing the preparation of serum pools, the analytical testing procedures, and the process involved in the dispensing of poor law courts into individual vials. As my duties does not permit me to spend full time in the laboratory, I made a point of reminding Ms. Mahaffey that her job description actually called for her to supervise directly the technologist work in the laboratory. Walking into the laboratory of unexpectedly one day, I noted that one of the technologists who was taking readings froma a colorimeter galvanometer which was swinging back and forth wildly. After I mentioned that Ms. Mahaffey should have noticed that the colorimeter was not functioning properly, Ms. Mahaffey asked for a transfer to a microbiology unit. Chemistry was not a strong part of Ms. Mahaffey’s previous training.
When I came on board at CDC, the Congress had enacted the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act of 1967 (CLIA 67). CDC was selected to implement CLIA 67. Any laboratory engaged in interstate commerce, that is, soliciting or accepting (directly or indirectly) any specimen for laboratory examination or other laboratory procedures would be regulated and CLIA 67 licensure would be required. Laboratories were given a full, partial, or exempt CLIA 67 license, depending on the scope of laboratory testing. Regulations included Applicability; License Application & Renewal; Quality Control; Personnel Standards; Proficiency Testing; Accreditation; General Provisions; and Sanctions.
To set up the required regulations, there was a grand meeting of those who would be affected by the act. Although I cannot name those who came to the meeting, I can say that on a Sunday before the first meeting began, Galla and I invited a number of people who came into Atlanta for this meeting to have dinner at our new house. I know that we grilled chicken and hamburgers out on our deck off our new house living room. I also remember driving to the airport several times to pick up a number of clinical chemists who would be coming to the regulatory meeting. After eating a lot of food we all sat around in our large living room. Morris Schaeffer, M. D., of the New York City Department of Health, who was present, was a noted storyteller. It was Stanley Inhorn, M.D., Director, State Laboratory of Hygiene, Madison, Wisconsin, that got him to start telling stories. Although I cannot name those who were in our living room, I recall being fascinated by the noted storyteller. During the following days I participated in a subgroup to discuss the CLIA 67 applications to the clinical chemistry laboratory. In a final plenary session the regulations for CLIA 67 were hammered out. The regulations were then published In the Federal Register and eventually adopted.
After the CLIA 67 regulations were adopted, I seem to recall that we now had to prepare samples for many hundreds of laboratories which were to be sent out monthly.. Each month we received and evaluated the results that were reported by the laboratories in this proficiency testing rogram.. Inspection teams went out to visit laboratories that did not perform well.
I was introduced to the CDC travel procedures quickly. In the midst of becoming acquainted with the functions of the unit, I was informed that I would be traveling to Pittsburgh, Sunday, July 23 and returning to Atlanta the evening of July 24. The purpose of the travel was to visit Sylvan Sax, Ph.D., and a clinical chemist at the head of the laboratory and a Pittsburgh hospital. The reason for the visit and escapes me, but I believe it had something to do with some innovations that were of interest to the laboratory improvement programs at CDC. I was also told that Dr. X (because I cannot remember her name), who was In the Analytical Biochemistry Unit, headed by Adrian Hainline, Ph.D., would accompany me on this trip. Dr. X., offered to pick me up in our car to get to the airport. It was at the airport, while waiting for our flight, that Dr. X. very loudly began to question me about my personal life. I believe we stayed in a Pittsburgh Hilton Hotel.
I had made a previous arrangement with Eugene Rice, PhD, and a noted clinical chemist in Pittsburgh to spendpart of Sunday evening with me at the hotel. Dr. X. did not want to join us.
Next morning, Dr. X. asked me to pay her hotel bill which I could not and did not do. During the time spent with Sylvan Sax tried to monopolize the conversation and it took quite a bit of doing to gather the information we were supposed to get. I was to learn that Dr. X. had problems in her unit.
I went by myself to the August 21-25, 1967, annual AACC meeting at the Marriott Motor Motel in Philadelphia. Both Jared and Rachel enjoyed attending the previous AACC annual meetings as there were always activities for member’s families. Both Jared and Rachel wanted to go to the meeting with me but this time getting settled in our new home was important so Galla and I decided that it would be better for me to go to the meeting without the family. Guilford G. Randolph, in a letter of July 9, 1967, I addressed to AACC members in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia, called for an organizational meeting of the Southeast Section to be healed in the Village Room of the Marriott Motor Motel, at 1 PM on August 21, 1967. At this meeting, I disclosed that I was a Charter Member of the Upstate New York Section. I suggested that from the experience with the Upstate New York Section, it would be best to have meetings twice a year because of the large section geographic area. The suggestion was accepted. It was also visited to have the first section meeting in Atlanta, at CDC. Section officers were elected. I was elected as a councilor.
The Medical Laboratory Section had a satellite laboratory at the Grady Hospital, which was located in the southeast sector of Atlanta. This laboratory was in old Grady Hospital eye clinic. The eye clinic building, across the street from Grady Hospital, was set back quite a way from the street. The city morgue was on one side of the courtyard in front of the eye clinic. Jim White, who was the chief of this group, left to continue his studies for the Ph.D. degree. I was assigned to be the acting chief of this group along with being the chief of my group in the main buildings of the CDC campus. The evaluation of the cholesterol test was among the projects for this group. Evaluation samples were prepared in relatively non-sanitary conditions in in this dilapidated building. So I spent part of a day at CDC in another part as the old eye clinic laboratory. At least, I was able to park my car in the courtyard. I had an interesting experience one day when I left my keys on the front seat of the car. Luckily, the drivers side window was slightly open which enabled me to try to finish the keys from a car seat with a wire coat hanger that I fashioned to become a rod with a hook at one end. While I was fishing for the keys, a police car drove into the courtyard and the officers in the car watch me for a while then drove off. I am quite sure they figured that I wast the legitimate owner of the car as a professional thief would have been able to open the door without much effort.
There are several members of the group at the eye clinic laboratory that are memorable. One technologist was Sue Lewis. Sue was unmarried and apparently lived on a farm. She was a tough character who was I understand it had a gun in her car. Sue came to me during my first days as a temporary chief and asked me to put her in for a promotion to a higher grade. Eventually she was promoted. I found that Sue was a conscientious and competent technologist. Another technologist was Mary Robinson. At that time, Mary was one of the few Afro-American technologists at CDC. When I was able to get one of the first programmable Olivetti calculating machines, it was Mary Robinson who was able to program it fairly quickly. I believe that her husband was a minister who was assigned to a church in the Chicago area. I am sorry to say that Mary Robinson left with her husband. It was many years later that I learned Mary Robinson earned a PhD degree and rose reemployed at CDC. It was at an annual AACC meeting that I had a reunion with Mary Robinson at eight CDC exhibit booth. Dr. X, who accompanied me to Pittsburgh in July, was assigned to thegroup at theeye clinic. Apparently as she was disrupting the work in one of the other section units, it was thought that a change to another unit might be what was needed. Well, I too, began having a headache with Dr. X. First, she began arriving an hour or two late in the morning and left earlier than quitting time. Her assigned duties included supervision of the laboratory work. Dr. X became a bit too friendly with several technologists which disrupted her supervision duties. After a number of talks about Dr. X’s behavior, I finally suggested that there were two choices for her. If Dr. X continued to flaunt the working hours and be remiss in her supervision duties, I would begin proceedings to terminate her employment or it would be better if she resigned of her own accord. Unofficially, I had the backing of the front office. Dr. X resigned.
JARED AND RACHEL Sometime during the summer of 1967, one evening I took Jared and Rachel to an Atlanta Braves -San Francisco Giants baseball game. I was an avid New York Giants baseball fan for many years and I continue as a fan when the New York Giants became the San Francisco Giants. Jared and Rachel suggested that now that we lived in Atlanta I should become an Atlanta Braves fan. Somehow, I still have an allegiance to my former hometown so I did not, and still do not, have it in me to be an Atlanta Braves fan. When we left the baseball stadium that night, being that we were new in Atlanta, I got lost. The stadium was in the Southeast quadrant of Atlanta and after driving around dark streets I pulled into a vacant lot. As I understand it now, I was not in safe territory. After consulting a city map I managed to find our way home.
In Rochester, Rachel completed the first hal of high school level French I in the seventh grade and the second half of French I was started in the eighth grade. At the beginning of the eighth grade in Rochester, Rachel also started taking the Algebra I course. After our move in October, 1966, we found that these courses were not taught in the eight grade in Harrisburg. When we found out we were moving from Harrisburg to Atlanta, Galla arranged for Rachel to re start learning algebra on her own with the help of the school principal (Mr. Ax). This was being done to prepare Rachel for finishing the second half of French and algebra during the summer of 1967. Rachel attended classes at the Lakeside High School after our move. This enabled her to complete the second half of the French and algebra courses.
Late in the month of August, 1967, both Jared and Rachel began attending classes at the Briarcliff High School. Jared was now in the 11th grade, or in his high school junior year and Rachel was in the ninth grade, or the first year of high School. was located on North Druid Hills near Briarcliff Road. Although a school bus pick-up was available for transportation, Jared and Rachel
also found a direct route to the school so they walked quite often. And of course, once in a while either Galla or I could tke them to school in our car.
While in high school, Jared and Rachel participated in Chess and Science Club activities and both wee involed as photographers at school activities. Rachel’s interest and ability in the field of mathematics also was on the mathematics team. Jared and Rachel also were involed in school activities as photographers.
I played chess for many years and I taught Jared and Rachel the basic moves of the game. Both Jared and Rachel became rather good at playing chess, and I believe it was not long before they beat me at the game I taught them to play. Jared began playing tournament chess and he eventually became a ranked national player. Rachel also played in several tournaments and I believe for a while she also had a national ranking. It was Jared who kept up his interest in chess.
Dr. Kay Davis, who was a science teacher and the head of the science department ay Briarcliff High School, arranged for the science club members to have a meeting at our house one evening. Dr. Davis brought a box of chocolates for the science club members. After the last chocolate piece was consumed, Dr. Davis let the members know that each piece of chocolate had an insect in it. The reaction to this announcement was generally that of disgust, but noone got sick.
NATE AND GALLA It was a medical necessity to locate an ophthalmologist quickly as I was still dealing with iritis, which probably is an autoimmune disease. I asked Dr. Cooper for help. A few days later, Dr. Cooper told me that an ophthalmology resident physician at Emory University highly recommended Dr. David Levenson, a young ophthalmologist who also was on a teaching staff At the Emory Medical School. On my first visit with Dr. Levinson, I had a thorough eye examination, and I was told that I had the beginning of cataract formation in both eyes. Also, about the end of the summer, pollen season arrived in Atlanta. I came up with a chronic sore throat and I went to Dr. Cooper again to ask him to recommend a physician. This he did, naming Dr. Paul Crank. It was Dr. Crank that diagnosed me with a reaction to pollen and suggested using an anti-histamine. Later, I was to find that Dr. Crank had spent two years at CDC and worked with Dr. Cooper in the cholesterol program. He also came from Rhode Island and had been a music major as an undergrad student. Both Galla and I found Dr. Crank to be a good and caring physician.
We became members of the Jewish Community Center The Center had programs for adults and children, The Center’s headquarters was in a midtown building. As time passed theJewish Community Center was increasing its prescence at Zaban Park , in Dunwoody. Eventually, we joined a Center couples club. After a good number of years the club ended its activities mainly because of change of membership requirements.
Early in July, 1967, I got a phone call from one of the local B’nai B’rith lodges. After getting a welcome to Atlanta message, I was told that early in the fall I would be contacted at about the resumption of B’nai B’rith meetings after a summer recess. Well, I did not get contacted, so after a while, I made a phone call to determine when meetings would begin. After attending several meetings, I volunteered my services for some committees. Apparently, my services were not accepted. I got a feeling that I was an outsider who was essentially being ignored. I maintained B’nai B’rith membership for many years as I cared much about their Hillel House programs on college campuses. I still remembered the Hillel House on the University of California campus which was like a second home to me as I was far away from my own home on the east coast. Galla also contributed for a number of years to a women’s chapter of B’nai B’rith.
Gradually, we became acclimated to our new environment. Work, school, shopping, and continuous efforts to make our home livable became became part of our daily routine.
Sometime toward the end of 1966, for reasons of my father’s deteriorating health, a decision was made to move to Hot Springs, Arkansas. We were surprised when in 1967 my Father and Mary came to visit us in Atlanta during the Thanksgiving Day weekend. They were on the way to return to Miami Beach as they were not very happy in Hot Springs. I still remember looking at my father through the car window when when Galla was going to drive to the Atlanta Greyhound Bus Terminal whee my father and Mary would leave for Miami beach. I still remember wondering if I would ever see my father again
DAVID RADIN On Sunday night, December, 03 1967, we received a telegram stating that my father was in St. Francis Hospital. He was very ill and he wanted to see me. The telegram was signed by Isaac Radin, my father’s youngest brother. The message indicated that the situation was serious enough for me to go to Miami Beach as soon as possible.
On Monday, very early in the morning I caught a Delta flight to Miami (Round Trip $62.90). On a telephone call at the airport to the information desk at the St. Francis Hospital, I learned that I was too late; my father died during the night. Somehow I was not surprised by this news. I rented a Hertz car for the day and drove to the hospital in Miami Beach. Mary apparently was stunned and was just staring into space.. With her was my Uncle Isaac and his middle daughter, Zina. I had not seen Zina since the beginning of World War II. Because I wanted to know the real cause of death, if possible, I was able to arrange for an autopsy. Then I visited the hospital financial office to pay what was owed; My father and Mary did not have any insurance policy to cover medical costs.
Before leaving the hospital, Mary told me that my father wanted to be buried in a plain pine box and in a First Odesser Young Men’s Benevolent Association of East New York plot at Montefiore Cemetery, St. Albans, New York. To make funeral arrangements, we went to the Riverside Memorial Chapel in Miami Beach. We were taken into a carpeted dimly lit room with various caskets. There were background sounds of somber music. It took a while for me to convince the funeral home salesperson that my father did not want a fancy casket; he wanted to be buried in a plain pine box. I was then taken into a room which reminded me of an oversized closet. The wooden floor and walls were bare and then the lighting was from an overhead incandescent electric bulb. Of course there was no background music. I pointed at a plain pine box which was up on a shelf. The salesperson pointed at a painted gray wooden box and said that they would give me that coffin for the same price as a plain pine box. By this time I was exasperated and settled for the gray box. Arrangements were made with Eastern Airlines for Mary and myself and the body to fly New York City that night . The cost at the funeral home was $250. Later,,I learned that if we had called the Riverside Memorial Chapel in Brooklyn New York, we would havee been able to save $250 because they could have handled the funeral arrangements directly, thus bypassing the Miami Beach Riverside Memorial Chapel. The cost of the Eastern Airlines flight was $118.44.
I drove to the hotel where Mary, with Zina, would stay until I made the necessary arrangements to leave for New York City. I went with Uncle Isaac to his apartment. While eating lunch I was told about the events preceding my father’s death. On Saturday, my father collapsed and was taken to the Mount Sinai Hospital of Miami Beach Emergency Room. My father was discharged without a definite diagnosis. On Sunday, my father collapsed again. When an ambulance came Mary had to pay cash for transporting my father to St. Francis Hospital. My father’s death was attributed to cerebral arteriosclerosis. After lunch, I first called,Galla to let her know what was going on. Then I called my cousin Ruth who lived near the Whitestone Bridge, in Queens, NY. I asked if she and her husband Sam, would make arrangements for the funeral with the Riverside Memorial Chapel, in Brooklyn NY and for burial in the Montefiore Cemetery. I also arranged to stay with my cousin and I alerted her that it might be all hours of the morning before I arrived. Another call was to arrange for Mary to stay with her cousin in Brooklyn NY.
After paying Hertz for my rental car with cash, I asked them to call Hertz at the JFK airport to reserve a rental car for myself. Neither Mary or I had much to say to each other during the flight. I somehow doubt that Mary even realized that we were on an airliner. As for myself, I was so drained physically and emotionally so very little passed through my mind.
It was close to midnight when we arrived at the JFK airport. I had to call Hertz to be brought to the airport office. I was told that there was no reservation for me. Then when I asked to rent a car, I was asked to show my credit card. In 1967, Galla and I did not have credit cards and we paid bills by check or cash. I was denied the renting of a car even though I produced my drivers license and my Public Health Service ID. I put up such a fuss that I was finally assigned a black sedan. At that time I had not realized that my night vision had deteriorated because of my eye inflammatory disease. I drove the car over one of those parking lot concrete stops. This car was not going anywhere. Mary and I went back into the office where I confessed. By this time, Mary was sobbing and hysterical. I suspect that the people in the office thought that I was a nut. I was asked where I was going. Someone in the office said that he was going to his home in Brooklyn and it would be better for him to take Mary to her cousin. Then I was assigned a bright red sedan. I sped up the Van Wyck Expressway and arrived at my cousin’s home after 3 AM.
On Tuesday evening, we spent several hours at the Riverside Memorial Chapel where relatives and friends came to express their sympathy. Two bouquets of flowers came, one from the CDC Medical Laboratory Section, and the other from the unit, of which I was the temporary chief. It was a comforting gesture but as far as I know there are no flowers at Jewish funerals. The funeral took place on Wednesday in the early afternoon of a cloudy dark gray and cold day. My red car stood out in the black car procession. At the burial site relatives and friends stood together and I was standing on the other side of the grave to be. I was grateful when my cousin Ruth came over to me and linked arms with me. There were no religious services as my father remained an atheist to his dying day. After everyone left I visited my mother’s grave and the graves of two of my father’s brothers. It was at that time that finally tears began to cloud my eyes. I felt very sad when I got into the red car and headed for the LaGuardia Airport.
A CDC pathologist and I reviewed the autopsy report when I received it. All the gross examinations of the organs and the microscopic examinations of stained organ sections indicated a multitude of abnormal pathologic conditions, but there was no definitive reason for death. All one can say is that all the crucial organ systems were no-go at once.
My main regret to this day is that I did not say anything before the casket was lowered to the final resting place. Now that much time has passed, I still think back to my relationship with my father. In retrospect, I was too young to understand my father’s situation at the time my mother died in 1932. I realize now that while my father did not demonstrate his feelings toward me openly, he in his own way was was always supportive of me. It took a long time for me to accept that Mary was my stepmother. Perhaps, the stark burial scene at the Montefiore Cemetery could have been avoided if I stepped forward and eulogized the the life of my father.
NATE: CDC On Saturday, October 28, 1967, I woke up at my usual hour, had a leisurely breakfast, drove to the airport and flew to Cincinnati, where I arrived about noon time. I took a taxi to the Jewish hospital where I met colleagues, had lunch, and participated on a panel which discussed the cholesterol test. This panel took place at an AACC Section meeting. I went back to the airport with some colleagues where we had snacks and coffee along with good conversation. Our group diminished in size as individuals left when their flights were called. I came home somewhere between 10 and 11 PM, and I still remember that Galla did not want to talk about the day until the movie she was watching on TV ended. I marveled about modern transportation which enabled round-trip long-distance travel within the day.
The dates between the time I was assigned to become the temporary chief of Jim White’s unit and the date that Jim White’s unit and the evluation unit merged escapes me. I am not sure, but I think that the old eye clinic building was either going to be replaced by a new building or that Grady Hospital found a needed use for it led to the merger of the units. I am also uncertain whether the Evaluation Unit was assigned a new area in the main CDC Clifton Road bilding or the laboratory area that existed was enlarged.
Maggie Rushron had been transferred to another unit as she did not want to move to the downtown eye clinic. While discussing another unit secretary with the unit personnel advisor, I quipped something like blond and five foot two. The secretary assigned to our unit was Dorothy Edelkind. She was an elderly woman who came from Brooklyn, NY and had years of experience as a secretary at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Ms. Edelkind was as competent as one would wish. What did amuse me was that she did not lose an old habit. When the phone rang, she stated, “Commander Radin’s Office.” Sometime in the future it turned out that we had a mitual friend socially.
The Evaluation Unit had a heavy workload to meet the proficiency testing requirements of the CLIA-67 regulations. In 1969, Because of the heavy work load, an aassistant for the chief of the evaluation unit position was authorized. I had the choice of three chemists. After interviewing the three chemists,, my choice was an Afro-American graduate of Morehouse had a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry and a Master’s degree in statistics from a Swiss University. I ushered the chemist to the unit personnel adviso, Ms. M. and we had an introductory conversation. After the chemist left, Ms M intimated that this chemist was an exceptional Afro-American. This remark led to a discussion of race relations. I do not know how it came up, but I mentioned that I was a part of a minority being Jewish. Ms. M said something like you aren’t really Jewish. Anyway after some nore conversation Ms. M told me that now that she looked at me, I had all the characteristics of a Jew. I didm’t get my Afro-American choice. As for this personnel officer, may she rest in peace. A Dr. Chernoff
At one time after sending out a batch of samples, I began receiving telephone calls from recipient laboratories. I was told that when the glucose tests were performed the results indicated that there was practically no glucose in the submitted samples. This information roulette to a closer examination of the sources for our serum pools. We found that one or two of the sources were drawing blood from dehabilitated harmless people, alcoholics, and drug addicts. This enabled these sources to draw blood rather cheaply. Apparently, our precautions to send out stabilized samples failed and we had to change our current procedures. To send out a new samples to replace the batch c of the house ontaminated, the unit technologists and Ms. Edelkind pitched in beyond the usual working hours to prepare and send out a completely new set of samples. I was really proud of our unit personnel for this effort.
Marguerite Candler, M.D., was the Chief of the Hematology Evaluation Unit. Before I met her I was told that she talks a lot and it is difficult to get away from her. In a way, this was true, but there was interaction between our units due to the hemoglobin test. I had no problems getting along with.Dr. Candler. When my eyesight began to fail because of cataract formation. Dr. Candler told me to start studying the use of braille. The day before I went to the hospital for cataract surgery, Dr. Candler remarked that some people die while undergoing cataract surgery. Dr. Candler at the age of 53 years exchanged marriage vows with Gearge Ballard. After retiring in 1985, DR. Candler was the author of a book entitled, Blood in Health and Disease. The book, published in 1987, was a well respected addition to the field of hematology. Years after I retired we occasional met George and Marguerite Candler at preview shows at the High Museum. of Art.
Memorable acquaintances during my employment at CDC incude Leo Pine (microbiologist, Charles Reimer (Immunologist), Leo Kaufman, William (Bill) Kaplan, and Libero Ajello (all mycologists), Tom Layfield (CDC Chief Engineer), Ed Smith (computer systems chief), and Arnold Hicks (Attorney). Als, at the time I am writing this autobiography, I have outlived most of the above mentioned acquantancs.
On January24, 1968, Andy Fodor, a microbiologist and the CDC representative at the inception of the National Commitee of Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS), and I flew to Miami to visit Dade Reagents, Inc. Although their process for serum pools for quality control use was kept secret, we were shown their automated system for filling and sealing the vials for their quality control products. We then drove to Sarasota. While stopping at a gas station, I called and had a conversatiowith Arthur Orloff, who now lived on Sanibal Island. I was sorry that we were close tohim and Molly, but our travel orders did not permit a detour. A after an overnight stay, we visited a company that designed and made automated systems for filling and sealing vials. It was during this two-day trip that Andy Fodor informed this new CDC employee about various laboratory improvement programs.
In February, 1967, Joe Boutwell, Elmer Hall, the Chief of a Statistics Unit, and I flew to WashingtonMediterranean restaurant for dinner. I was kidded about being Jewish and eating in an Arab restaurant. After dinner, Stanley Inhorn led a group, includng me but not Joe, ubto some night club to view belly dancers. At the conferenec next day, we brain-stormed about ways to test laboratory performance.
The first general meeting of the Southeast Section took place on Friday and Saturday, March 22-23, 1968, at the National Communicable Disease Center, in Atlanta. Thirty-five AACC members attended the meeting. The AACC CDC members were the hosts and they presented a of clinical chemistry at CDC.
Both in April, 1968 and 1970, I was sent to Atlantic City, NJ, to attend the annual meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). At this time I cannot identify the lectures I heard. The large number of industrial exhibits that were of interest as applied to my unit operations. It was at one or both of the meetings I attended that my cousin Norman was also there. My friends Mickey and Justin Shapiro were exhibitors at either one or both of these meetings. They had founded Labindustries, Berkeley, California. Their Repipet as a major part of the exhibit. The Repipet consisted a device on top of a bottle which precisely delivered a measured aliquot from a solution in the bottle. What stands out in my mind about this meeting is the number of scientists who who played musical instruments. At the end of the day trios and quasrtets were to be found easily. Mickey and Justin’s daughter Toby, who was an excellent cello player was part of a quartet in one of the meeting auditoriums. Two vioin players in this quartet were F. William Sunderman, Sr, MD, PhD, ScD, .a pathologist and his son F. William Sunderman, Jr, MD, also a pathologist. Toby sudeenly left the quartet with her cwllo and walking came up the aisle saying something that old man is impossible. Also I think she said that the old man was counting and he was wrong. Dr. Sunderman , Sr., was supposedly an accom-lished violinist and he actually made it to Carnegie Hall in 1998, playing a duet with his son, Dr. F. William Sunderman Jr., in a concert of classical music performed by doctors. Although I never met Dr. Sunderman , Sr., personally, for a good number of years I corresponded with t him by clinical chemistry standards and quality control. At the end of every year, for many years, I received greeting cards from Bill Sunderman. Dr. Sunderman was chief of clinical pathology at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School Hospital. He went to work for eight hours a day until several weeks before Dr Sunderman died at his home in Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia, Pa, on March 9, 2003 at the age of 104. I got to kow F. William Sunderman, Jr, through AACC committee activities.
In 1967 and 1968, reports of the evaluation results from laboratories being tested were edited by a group led by Ms. Edwina Davis, and then assembled as booklets by the art group at CDC. After this process booklets were printed and distributed to those interested in the results. It was during the annual AACC meeting of August 18 - 23, 1968, at the Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington, DC, that I presented the paper entitled Proficiency Testing Experiences, and the co-authors listed were Mary Ann Mchaffey, and Rebecca L. Wiley; Medical Laboratory Section, NCDC, Atlanta, Georgia. The abstract for the presentation read as follows: The Evaluation Unit, Medical Laboratory Section, NCDC, conducted a proficiency testing program for the U.S. Public Health Service during the fiscal year 1968. The chemical constituents cholesterol, uric acid, sodium, potassium, chloride, carbon dioxide, calcium, magnesium, and hemoglobin were determined twice, and glucose, urea, and creatinine were determined once by the participant laboratories. The samples were all in the liquid state and prepared from human, bovine, calf, sheep, or burro blood. For samples with elevated cholesterol levels, blood was drawn from steers and burros which had been previously injected with Triton. To maintain stability, all the reference materials were passed through Millipore filters. Antibiotics such as penicillin, streptomycin, and amphotericin B were added to the reference materials. Sodium omadine, an antibacterial and antifungal agent, was also added to a few samples. The techniques for preparing this samples, the proficiency testing techniques, the reference laboratory system to determine target values, the computer program, and the results for the year will be presented.
At the AACC Southeast Section meeting, at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, Friday and Saturday, October 11-12, 1968, I was the Chairman of an afternoon standards symposium. After some introductory remarks, I again presented the What Is A Standard? paper: The use of primary standards for measuring enzyme activities in the absence of zero order kinetics was presented by B. Dumas, Ph.D., Medical College of Alabama, Department of Clinical Pathology, Birmingham, Alabama. C.S. Frings, Ph.D., Medical Laboratory and Associates, 1025 South 18th Street, Birmingham, Alabama followed with the paper Evaluation of commercial standards for automated analysis. The final paper of this mini-symposium was The separation of serum albumin for use as a protein standard, by H.G. Biggs, Ph.D., Medical College of Alabama, Department of Clinical Pathology, Birmingham, Alabama.
In Atlanta, cataract formation in both eyes became apparent quickly and by the end of 1068 my vision was completely clouded. . It was probable that the cataracts were a result of the use of topical steroids to treat the iritis. To my dismay, the cataracts developed so quickly that I had to be driven to CDC for me to continue working. My first cataract surgery took place in February, 1969. While at home recovering from surgery, I was surprised one evening by vistors who rang our door bell. The visitors were Richard Henry, of Bio-Science Laboratories and Emil Jennings, of the Levey Jennings quality control publication fame.
I was also visited at home by Joe Boutwell and Ed Cavenaugh one afternoon. They had decided because of my eye problems that I should change positions at CDC. In May 21, 1969, I was presented a job description written by E. L. Cavenaugh , National Communicable Disease Center, Laboratory Division, Licensure and Development Branch, Laboratory Training Section, Clinical Chemistry and Hematology Training Unit. The function of the Clinical Chemistry and Hematology Training Unit was to serve as the initiating and coordinating center for the training activities of the Laboratory Consultation and Development Section which included activities at the National Communicable Disease Center and in the field; and to utilize techniques of individual bench training, class training, correspondence courses, and the development of techniques for specific applications.
NATE AND GALLA In January, 1968, at DeKalb Plymouth in Chrysler we traded in our Ford station wagon for a new Plymouth station wagon at a cost of $3,078.56. After each of their 16th birthdays Jared and Rachel passed the Georgia Driver’s Licence Test. However, we did not allow them to drive the car without one of us until we were assured that they were responsible enough to drive solo. For a while we let them drive by themselves to pick me up at CDC when I was unable to drive for a while.
Galla became a member of the National Council of Jewish Women in September, 1967. The annual dues paid on September 18, 1967 was $7.50.
The Temple (1589 Peachtree St. NE), known as the Hebrew Benevolent Congregation of Atlanta,was formed in 1867. In its early years, The Temple was Orthodox. In 1895, Rabbi David Marx brought Reform Judaism to The Temple. Ever since then, our congregation has been a member of the Union for Reform Judaism (formerly known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations). The Temple was an important source of strength in the community in the aftermath of the Leo Frank lynching. Rabbi Jacob Rothschild also befriended the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil rights era. In October 1958, the educational wing of the Temple was bombed, part of a campaign to intimidate organizations across the South that were sympathetic to civil rights issues., Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, served The Temple from 1946 to 1973. Due to the sudden death of Rabbi Jacob Rothschild in 1873, Alvin M. Sugarman, a young Rabbi at The Temple, assumed Rabbi Rothschild’s position temporarily and remained as the Temple Rabbi until his retirement in 2004.
Early in the year of 1968, Galla and I became members of The Temple congregation. We are secular Jews, however, the reason for becoming a Temple member was to become acquainted with members of the Jewish community. Although we have friends of different religious faiths, it is still nice to be among those who share the same cultural backgrounds. Galla became a member of the Temple Sisterhood. The two of us joined The Couples Club. Here we met and socialized with a number of members. When we first joined the Couples Club, members socialized at dinner parties at the Temple. Names of members that we socialized with included Bernard and Shirley Levenson, Ed and Ruth Schuster. Leo Kaufman and Bill Kaplan, mycologists at CDC came to the couples club with their wives. Also, quite often and gatherings at the Levinson’s house, Leo and Bill were there with their wives. As a member Of Womens ORT, Galla increased the size of our social contacts. What comes to mind at the moment, is that we we met couples with whom we playrd bridge at each other’s homes.
Some of the bridge player couples include Ed and Ruth Schuster, Frances and Harry Brandt, all Temple members, and Ira and Gert Bodker, members of Beth Jacob, an Orthodox Jewish synagogue on Lavista road (close to Sheffield Drive. For many, many years Galla, Gert, Frances, Ruth, and Barbara Goodman have played bridge at each others homes on the first Tuesday of each month. They play, eat lunch, and play some more. At the time that I am writing this autobiography, it was several years ago the Ruth Schuster dropped out as she developed Alzheimer’s disease after her husband Ed Schuster died. The quartet has continued playing bridge on the first Tuesday of the month to the present.
MAY SOLOMON Sometime after Galla’s mother died, her father retired and moved to Brooklyn, NY, into an apartment with his two sisters May and Selma Solomon. May was afflicted with Parkinson’s disease. We watched her physical deterioration for good number of years. It got to a point where she could not communicate and both Selma and Monroe pitched in to take care of her needs until May Solomon died on April 26, 1968.
GALLA Galla became a member of the US Public Health Service Women’s Club, ORT,
the National Council of Jewish Women, The Temple Sisterhood, B’nai B’rith. Beside attending US Public Health Service Women’s Club meetings, Galla joined the Club’s group which played bridge once a month. Both of us joined a Club’s group which played bridge once a month on Friday evenings.
JARED AND RACHEL Jared spent the first eight weeks of vacation during the summer of 1968 at the camp Shady Trails. This was the fourth time that he went to this camp in Michigan for intensive speech training. This was also the last time that he spent part of his summer at Shady Trails. Also this time he flew to and from Traverse City without Norman meeting him to guide him in airline transfers. While Jared was away at Shady Trails, we took Rachel to the Union of Reform Judaism Camp Coleman, in Cleveland, Georgia. we arranged for Rachel to spend two weeks only at the camp. When we came to take Rachel home, she pleaded with us to let her stay at the camp a bit longer. I believe it was for financial reasons that we could not arrange for Rachel to spend more time at Camp Coleman.
With Rachel and Jared back home after their camping experiences, from August 9th to the 25th, we drove to New York City and then to Washington DC before returning to Atlanta. In New York City we visited with family members. I note from our records that we spent a day at Jones Beach. Jones Beach State Park, east of New York City on Long Island Jones Beach is a world class ocean swimming and recreation center. On the way back to Atlanta, we attended the AACC annual meeting in Washington DC.
Jared was in the 12th grade, or his senior year of high school and Rachel was in the 10th grade during the school year of 1968-1969. We all went to the State Science Fair which was held in Athens, Georgia from April 3d to the 5th, 1969. We stayed in a good motel and the cost for two nights was $20.10. Rachel had an exhibit at this fair which was of particular interest to me. As my research problem for the PhD degree was in the field of polarography, a scientific experiment in the field of-polarography article in a Scientific American issue caught my eye. I gave the article to Rachel and she decided to put together a primitive polarograph. Essential ingredients of a polarograph included a capillary, lots of the element mercury, a voltmeter, a galvanometer. And various items of chemistry laboratory equipment. To construct a dropping mercury electrode, an important part of a polarograph, Rachel, by herself, managed to gather all necessary ingredients. I gave Rachel a blank laboratory notebook. So Rachel created an exhibit in the field of polarography and I think she won one of the prizes at the science fair.
Also, toward the end of April, 1969 Rachel with the help of Galla, purchased a gown and accessories for a high school prom. And for a little One of her school friends, Steve Reimer, dated Rachel for the prom. Steve Reimer’s father, Charles, was an immunologist at CDC. It was many years after the prom that for physical reasons, Charles and I took long walks during lunch hour. In 1970, Rachel again was taken to the high school prom, this time by another school friend, Barry Lovinger. We got to know Barry’s parents, Norman and Zina.
Jared graduaed from Briarcliff High School at the end of the 1968-1969 school year. Jared was just an average student in regards to grades which in a way made him a chip of the block. Note: I also just had average passing grades in high school, but very good grades in science and some Engish courses because they were of special interest to me. I also did well in the New York State State Regents Exams. Jared applied and was accepted at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech).
Rachel had excellent course grades at Briarcliff High School. During the summer of 1969, Rachel went to a National Science Foundation program at Ohio University, Athens Ohio. At the University, Rachel took computer science courses. We paid some of the expenses for this summer program. In the summer of 1969. Rachel flew to and from Athens.
Jared matriculated at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) in the fall of 1969. I do not remember if we ever discussed what Jared should major in, but he picked the field of chemistry. During the school year, Jared lived in a Georgia Tech dormitory.
On Monday, March 30, 1970, the State School Superintendent announced the 400 winners in the 1970 Governor’s Honorstates Program. The program is an educational project for gifted students. The program is conducted by the Georgia Department of Education on the Wesleyan College campus in Macon. Rachel was one of the winners. She took mathematics courses at the college.
During the school year of 1970-1971, Rachel took advantage of a program which let her matriculate at Georgia Tech in lieu of attending 12th grade classes at the Briarcliff High School. Jared was now in his sophomore year and Rachel essentially was combining her last year at Briarcliff High School with her first year of college. Both Rachel and Jared lived in Georgia Tech dormitories. There was a memorable ice storm during the winter of 1971. At that time Jared and Rachel were on a winter break and were back home. The electric power was out for close to a week. Galla and I were able to transport Jared and Rachel back to the dormitories where electric power was unaffected. Galla and I returned to a cold house. We kept feeding our fireplace with wood to keep us warm. One evening Galla and I put our sleeping bags near the fireplace and tried to sleep on the floor. Suddenly we heard noise from the refrigerator. To our relief electric power was avaiklable again.
Rachel graduated from Briarcliff High School at the end of the 1970-1971 school year. She was not interested in staying at Georgia Tech and had applied and was accepted at the University of Michigan. Sometime before the end of the school year in 1971, we sat with Rachel At the International Pancake House (IHOP) to discuss financial matters. We told Rachel that at that time we did and we promise her $2,500 for the next school year. I believe that Rachel was unable to get a student loan while at the University of Michigan. About the time Rachel had been accepted at the University of Michigan, we received a letter from Yale University. Yale University which had a student body of men only, was now starting to admit women. The letter indicated the possibility of a scholarship fund for Rachel. This was not followed up as Rachel had decided to go to the University of Michigan. We left home on September 2, 1971, and drove to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to get Rachel settled at a university dormitory and register for the second year college courses. Rachel was a mathematics major and was a good enough student to be elected to the honorary scholastic society, Phi Beta Kappa. Of course we were able to visit my cousin Norman and his wife, Norma. After leaving Ann Arbor, we drove east, made a stop in Rochester, New York, and then drove on to New York City. In New York City, I presented a quality control workshop ai a Department of Health site. The New York City Department of Health had contacted CDC and requested this workshop. While in New York City we had the opportunity to visit cousin Ruth and Sam and Galla’s family. We drove back to Atlanta with Galla’s father.
At the end of his second year at Georgia Tech, Jared was discouraged about his college career at Georgia Tech, so he applied and was admitted to the University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. Because of his transfer, Jared lost a year and he was again a sophomore at the university. At the start of the University of Georgia school year, we drove to Athens, Georgia, with Jared to get him settled in a dormitory room. Even though it was probably against the rules, Jared prepared his own meals in his dormitory room. I believe he had a hot plate for cooking and this he did. Jared continued his major of chemistry and he graduated in the Spring of 1974.
While in college, Jared and Rachel worked during some of the summer vacations. Memory lapses make it difficult to establish the summer years they worked. Jared thinks it was the summer of 1970 that he worked for the Alcan Cable Company in Chamblee, Georgia. At the cable company Jared recalls that he worked for maintenance and painted walls a lot. It was either in 1971 that I called Morton Schwartz, Ph.D., the head of the chemistry laboratory at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, in New York City, to ask if there was a summer job for an aspiring chemist. I knew Morton Schwartz professionally as our paths crossed a number of times at conferences and meetings. Jared was offered a summer job in the laboratory which enabled him to spend the summer in New York City. I recommend it and Jared are arranged to live at the 92nd Street Y (YMHA). While in New York City after work Jared played a lot of chess at the Manhattan Chess Club. While he was there Bobby Fischer, Horowitz, and other well known players visited the club. It was the year before Bobby Fischer became world champion (1972).
Rachel worked mostly on weekends during the summer of 1971 at the Georgia Tech Student Center in the Music Room. This was a job Rachel also had while she was a student during the 1970-1971 school year. After her first year (sophomore) at the University of Michigan, Rachel came home for the summer of 1972. Rachel got a job as a waitress at a local Howard Johnson restaurant. She quit the job after 4 1/2 days because it was a thoroughly unpleasant job that didn't pay much. Rachel told us that a man she had served identified himself as a writer for the magazine, The New Yorker. As we get this magazine, sure enough, in one issue there was a descriptio of a waitress nworking at Howard Johnson, however, Rachel’s name was not mentioned. Rachel soon found a summer job at the local Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital on Clairmont Road. At first RachelI worked up in some nurse's station (while someone was on vacation). A after a while Rachel was moved to some administration area. At the VA she was a file clerk where she did miscellaneous boring things that were not particularly memorable. In the summer of 1973, Rachel had a job at Bell Labs in Holmdel, NJ. She lived in Mattawan, NJ, sharing an apartment with someone who worked for Bell Labs who had been looking for a roommate. At Bell Labs, she helped analyze some data. The data they had was full of errors from things like having originally been recorded with bad handwriting. Rachel wrote a program that looked at the data that had been entered into the computer and indicated which items were clearly wrong. Rachel worked at the University of Michigan library at the end of her senior year
To attend the University of Michigan ceremonies where Rachel would graduate, Galla and I flew to Detroit on Friday, May 3, 1974. We rented a car at the airport to drive to Ann Arbor where we had motel reservations. On Friday night, we spent some time with Norman and Norma at their home. On Saturday, at the graduation ceremonies, Gerald Ford, the vice president of the United States and an alumnus of the University of Michigan was a major speaker. Rachel, who excelled in her studies with a major in mathematics and was elected to be a member of theacademic honor society Phi Beta Kappa, was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree. During the three years at the University, we heard a lot about a current boyfriend, Bowen. Galla and I were invited to have dinner at Bowen’s home on Saturday night. Thus, we met Bowen’s parents, Mathew and Rebecca Alpern. Dr. Mathew Alpern was a physiologist at the University of Michigan who took some of the mystery out of color vision and color blindness. I remember looking at one of Dr. Alpern’s books on the physiology of the eye at the CDC library. We had an enjoyable dinner that evening. Before leaving for Atlanta on Sunday, we learned that Rachel was going to continue working at the University of Michigan library during the summer after graduation. We also learn that Rachel and Bowen were going to enroll at the University of California at Santa Cruz graduate school for advanced degrees in computer science.
We had another graduation soon after the one for Rachel. We attended the graduation ceremonies were Jared was granted a baccalaureate degree. because Rachel completed her last year of high school and first year of college simultaneously and Jared lost a year by his transfer to the University of Georgia, both Rachel and Jared graduated in 1974
NATE: CDC When my transfer to the Clinical Chemistry and Hematology Training Unit became effective I moved into a new office which I shared with Larry Sullivan.
In June, 1969, t I flew to Bozeman. Montana to join Larry Sullivan, who was on a teaching assignment. As we approached the Bozeman airport, I could not see the ground below due to a fog. There was a momentary break in the fog which enabled me to see a church steeple which seemed close to the airliner wing. The fog then closed in and when the airliner landed I had limited vision of the area around the airport. In a van taking me to the motel where I would share a room with Larry, I overheard some conversation from other passengers. There were some nasty words spoken about the Indian population in the area. Because, I had vision in one eye only and I was using a cane because of difficulty with depth perception, I was sent on this trip as an observer only. But it wasn’t long before I joined Larry in a teaching capacity for this workshop on a use of colorimeters. The workshop was being presented on the campus of Montana State University. A pathologist had requested this workshop through the Indian Health Service. While on campus for a week I wandered into the university bookstore and I was quite impressed with the selection of books other than textbooks. When I packed to go to Montana in June, I took a light sweater with me. It snowed all day during our week in Bozeman. This was a day that I tried to avoid going outdoors, but we had to do so travel between the nniversity and arm motel Our teaching duties ended late Friday afternoon and it was not until Sunday that we would move on to Aberdeen, South Dakota. The pathologist, who arranged to have CDC present the program, offered to take Larry and myself on an excursion to Yellowstone Park on Saturday. Larry went out by himself Friday night and came back to the room well after midnight. He remained in the room on Saturday where I had a nice day visiting the northern area of Yellowstone Park. It was of particular interest to see the area where an earthquake had occurred in the park area. On Sunday, the it was a nice clear, but cold, day outdoors. At the irport I noticed that the runway was parallell to a mountain range. This I did not see when I arrived.
While waiting for our flight at the airport outdoor gate, we watched a Boeing 727 Airliner flying rather low and circling the airport many times. It made us wonder if there was something wrong with this airliner. Finally, the airliner landed and stopped at the further end of the runway and just stood there for at least 10 minutes. Then at last, the 727 turned and rolled down the runway, which was also the taxiway, until it came to a stop near the gate. An airport employee walked over to the nose of the airliner and plugged-in a telephone. A seemingly long conversation ensued. At last, a stairway from the rear of the 727 drop to the ground. The pilot and copilot walked down the stairway. We noticed that they seem to be looking at the tail of the airliner. Larry remarked, “If anyone t kicks the tires, I am not going.” One of the pilots walked over to the tires and punched them with his hands. I asked Larry if we were going on this flight. The answer was that the pilot did not kick the tire. We did fly to Bismarck, North Dakota, and then change flights to continue on to Aberdeen, South Dakota.
Larry and I spent the next four days teaching the Fundamentals of Spectrophotometry. The students were technologists from local Indian reservations. I vaguely remember that our classroom was held in a bar. Of course in the evening this bar catered to customers. During the week I was interviewed by a reporter from the Aberdeen (SD) American-News. On June 19, 1969, an article along with a photograph of myself and two technologists and appeared in the newspaper (Page 3). The caption with the photograph was as follows:
DR. NATHAN RADIN, left, from the National Communicable Disease Center in, Atlanta, GA, was one of the directors of an Indian health laboratory workshop held this week at the Downtown or Friendship Inn. Patricia Seabolt, laboratory and X-ray technician at the Sioux Sanatorium in Rapid City, and Raymond C. Miller, laboratory technician at the Public Health Service Hospital in Sisseton, are two of the participants in the review and continuing education sessions.
In the article, Lawrence Sullivan and myself are described as representatives of the NCDC who will be giving lectures and conducting laboratory exercises. The article also explains the role of NCDCin making available workshops for improving laboratory performance.
When we left Aberdeen on Friday, it was 32 ?F in the morning, and when we arrived in Atlanta in the evening, it was 95 ?F and very humid as compared to the conditions we had out west.
It wasn’t long before I had another travel assignment. Mr. P, the chief of a laboratory inspection group, and I flew to Philadelphia , on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Before returning to Atlanta on Friday, July 25, 1969, we visited laboratories in Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City, and Connecticut. In Philadelphia, we spent part of a day inspecting the clinical chemistry laboratory at Temple University School of Medicine Hospital. Joe Boutwell had been the director of this laboratory before joining the staffat the NCDC Medical Laboratory Section. Before leaving Atlanta on this trip, Joe said something about being thorough when we inspected his former laboratory. This we did and found excellent adherence to the CLIA-67 regulations. Beside the visit at the Temple University hospital clinical chemistry laboratory, the visit at a Connecticut hospital laboratory is a bit memorable because we did not expect the laboratory director who was a Japanese pathologist to be well over 6 feet tall.
In August, 1969, I left Atlanta with an assignment to collect data about the needs for medical technology training programs. I flew to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport on a Delta airliner. The airliner was late when it left Atlanta and being late on arrival, I had to hurry to catch the Frontier airliner, which would take me to Gallup, New Mexico. My checked suitcase was not on this flight. At the Gallup motel I was supplied with an alarm clock and a kit which contained the means for me to brush my teeth and shave. I spent several days at an Indian Health Service clinical laboratory. I had a tour of the Indian Health Service Hospital and I met the new hospital administrator, who was a psychiatrist. At was not until I moved on then I connected with my suitcase the evening I bordered a Frontier airliner. While waiting for my flight to Phoenix, Arizona, the hospital administrator was at the airport. We had an interesting conversation about the Indian health problems and also about many being unemployed. I was told that some of the young Indians were sent to the east coast to learn how to weld. Then they came back to Gallup where there was no need for welders. It was late at night that I boarded the Frontier airliner. As we approached the Phoenix,the flight became very bumpy due to a thunderstorm in the vicinity. I had very little sleep that night at a local motel because I had an early morning flight to Los Angeles. On arrival at the airport the flight I boarded aborted twice. I was then told because of airliner crew strikes, pt would be difficult to place me on a morning flight to Los Angeles. I called the person I was to visit at the Torrance, California, hospital and rescheduled my visit until the next day. Late in the afternoon I was finally placed on a first-class seat on the Continental airliner. On arrival in Los Angeles, I got into a taxi and asked to be taken to a motel in Torrance. The driver said he only drive north of Los Angeles and not to any place south of the city. When I started to protest, the taxi driver suggested that I should call the motel and get directions for him so he could take me there. When I called the motel I was told to ask t the taxi driver to get himself. I was also told that the taxi driver should not charge me more than $10. After the taxi driver got the driving, directions, he got into the taxi and said that he would not charge me more than $10 for this trip. The meter showed about $10.50 on arrival at the motel, so I gave the driver the amount on the meter and a good tip.
The next day, I moved on to the Torrance Memorial Hospital. I spent a day with the clinical chemist in his laboratory. We discussed the effects of CLIA 67 and the needs for training programs. I then flew to San Francisco. After arrival at the airport, I boarded a helicopter to take me to Berkeley. The view of the San Francisco Bay Area from a helicopter was spectacular. I spent a week at the California Department of Health offices. I did get one afternoon off to visit the University of California at Berkeley campus because I was an alumnus of this institution. I then flew to Boise, Idaho, where I spent several days at the State Health Department. My final destination was Denver, Colorado, where I attended the AACC 21st National Meeting August 17 - 22, 1969.
On Sunday, August 17, 1969, I went to the Denver airport late in the morning. I expected to meet Galla who was scheduled to be on a flight arriving in Denver about noon. A weather report indicated storms in the Atlanta area. The flight which Gallo was scheduled to be was late arriveing from Dallas. Galla did not arrive on the expected flight. On inquiry, I was told that the flight leaving Atlanta was late to arrive in Dallas. I was then told that I should expect Galla on a later flight from Dallas. Clinical chemists, whom I knew, debarked from the next flight arriving from Dallas, but Galla was not one of the debarking passengers. Finally, it was on last flight from Dallas, that Gallo arrived. Galla told me that the reason for her being placed on the slight flight wasthe the airline scheduler put her on slight flight because she was owed lunch. Galla did tell me that I should have heard a page at the airport. I suppose that not expecting to be paged and concentrating on the book I was reading while waiting were enough to ignore airport pages.
The AACC annual meeting took place at the Denver Hilton Hotel. The abstract off the paper that I presented at the meeting is as follows: The National Reference Laboratory Network. Presentation by Nathan Radin, Ph.D.. Co-authors Joseph H. Boutwell, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., and Elmer C. Hall, Ph.D.
Their usefulness and effectiveness of a reference laboratory can be greatly increased by intercorrelating results on replicates samples, preferably at different concentration levels. A system providing such intercorrelation between and among laboratories has been organized and is being evaluated. This system termed “The National Reference Laboratory Network” (NRLN) assures that at least one reference laboratory is common to all separate proficiency testing programs. Each reference laboratory contributes data not only to the proficiency testing operation (in which it is primarily enlisted) but also to each of the other proficiency testing operations through one common reference laboratory. The supreme advantage of this system is the consensus that is developed - it is a truly scientific one and not an imposed agreement. This system indicates nonconsensus figures not only for many of the participating reference laboratories but also for one common laboratory. Initial consensus studies were made by sending 10 samples, in each of six categories, to the reference laboratories in the NRLN. Concentration levels of glucose, creatinine, urea nitrogen, uric acid, cholesterol, sodium, potassium, total protein, and hemoglobin were determined with single analyses by the CDC Central laboratory. The intercorrelation data will be presented along with a new valuation of the present NRLN system. Joe Boutwell and I had carefully selected what we thought would be the best clinical chemistry laboratories in the country. The spreads of the results which came back to us was surprising. This indicated the necessity of lots to do ensure that results of analyses in one lab should match, or be very close.
In Denver, I believe it was where we met Robert Schaffer and his wife, Pat. Bob Schaffer was at the National Bureau of Standards. We became acquainted over dinner at some restaurant and a personal friendship resulted. Bob and I had many telephone conversations about cholesterol and standards in general as he was working with the Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) program. With superior facilities and time, Bob presided over the development of SRMs for the clinical chemistry laboratory.
Until April 1972, I traveled often to attend meetings, visit State Health Departments and at times to present a quality control workshop which I developed. My travel dates and destinations after the Denver AACC meeting are as follows: October 29-21, 1969, Columbus, Ohio; May 1970, Boston; July 16-29, 1970, with Galla, Rochester (annual leave), CDC travel - Buffalo (AACC Annual Meeting), and New York City (annual leave); September 22-25, 1970, Detroit; November 9-19, 1971, New York City, Buffalo, and Philadelphia; October 22-24, with Galla, Birmingham AL (AACC SE Section meeting); November 17-20, 1970, Kansas City, Kansas; November 29 - December 09, 1970, Boston, Hartford, and New York City; April 1971 CDC one day trip, Washington DC; April 1971, with Galla, Gatlinburg TN (AACC SE Section meeting); with Galla, August 07-21, 1971, Seattle (AACC Annual Meeting) and Portland, OR; September 26-October 3, 1971, Lansing, MI; Occtober 11-14, 1971. Little Rock, Arkansas; October 28-30, 1971, Memphis TN (AACC SE Section Meeting; November 1-5, 1971. Charlston, West Virginia;
November 29-December 3, 1971 Nashville TN with John Krickel.
In May 1970, at the suggestion by Cecil Duncan, with whom I was to spend a week Boston, my travel arrangement was to fly to New York City LaGuardia Airport and then continue on to Providence, Rhode Island. This arrangement would make it simpler for Cecil to pick me up at an airport which was less busy than the Logan International Airport in Boston. The flight to Providence was on a high-wing, two-engine turboprop airliner. I had a window seat and a pilot was sitting next to me on an aidle seat. As we approached the Providence Airport, the pilot kept mumbling that the engines on the airliner were not synchronized and the pilot in the cockpit was not doing anything right. I have a feeling that this mumbling pilot was just trying to make the surrounding passengers uncomfortable. And of course, maybe not as during the time I am writing this narrative , it appears that many pilots of commuter airliners had insufficent training for the job. Be it as it may, the commuter airliner I was on landed safely.
Mr. Cecil Duncan, Laboratory Management Consultation Section, Licensure and Development Branch, was on assignment to the Massachusetts Health Department. I joined him to continue seeking information for training programs needed by medical technology programs in the area. I spent an interesting week with Cecil as we interviewed a number of interested parties. Our interviews began at the Northeastern University, in Boston, and then at various hospital laboratories. Toward the end of the week, Cecil suggested that we relax for a while. I seem to have an image of us sitting on some rocks near a lighthouse. Perhaps this did occur or maybe not. However, I do remember more clearly that Cecil and I spent a number of hours being somewhat philosophical.
One late afternoon, we ended up at the New England Deaconess Hospital where we met with the pathologist Bradley Copeland, M.D. It was when Bradley Copeland was at CDC, he said something like that when I was in Boston he would treat me to a good steak meal. After Cecil left, on the day that we met with Bradley Copeland, I was taken To the Hilltop Steak House, which was north of Boston. The steak was good and we also were able to continue our conversation about standards and quality control in the clinical laboratory. Quite a few years later when I was in Boston with the family, we drove out to have a steak lunch at the Hilltop Steak House. This time I felt that the staks were not as good as they seemed during my previous dinner at the Hilltop Steak House.
After I returned from Boston my assignment was to develop a quality control workshop for clinical chemistry laboratories which were being regulated by the CLIA 67. It was suggested that I should visit the Instructive Communications Activity, Training Program Office. There, Mary C. Metz, Assistant Editor, was assigned to work with me in developing the workshop. Ms. Metz pointed out that in developing the quality control workshop that I should keep in mind what the students should be able to do, and not just to know, after completing the course. I said something like it shouldn’t take long for me to design a course. I was wrong. It took months for me to come up with a workshop curriculum.
To lecture eight hours a day would be deadly. For the workshop to succeed I needed to provide classroom experiences which would enable the laboratory worker who performs basic chemistry tests and the supervisor who is responsible for quality performance to establish, maintain, and understand quality control systems in the broad aspects of good quality performance. I then took the time to collect and reread portions of the books by W. P. Youden and Walter A. Shewhart. A book by Carl A. Bennett and Norman L. Franklin also turned out to be useful. A Joe Boutwell monograph, entitled Quality Assurance in Clinical Chemistry, was a valuable reference source.
Youden W . Statistical methods for chemists. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1951: 126 pp.
Shewhart WA. Economic control of quality of manufactured product. New York: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1931: 501 pp.
Bennett CA, Franklin NL. Statistical analysis in chemistry and the chemical industry. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1954:724 pp.
Barnett RN. Clinical laboratory statistics. Boston: Little, Brown ,1971: 197 pp.
The outcome of my preparations for this workshop were two manuals, one of which was a workbook1 and the other a primer2. Both manuals were written with instructional design assistance by Mary C. Metz, Assistant Editor, Instructive Communications Activity, Training Program. Dr. Eloise Eavenson, Clinical Chemistry and Hematology Branch, and Mr. Cecil Duncan, Laboratory Management Consultation Section, Licensure and Development Branch, reviewed this course material and Dr. Joseph H. Boutwell, Jr., now the Chief of the Licensure and Development Branch made valuable suggestions in the manuals preparation and presentations..
The primer served as the basis for lectures and discussions. The five major topics were Measurement, Variability, Measurements: The Analytical Process, Variability: Statistics, Performance Evaluation: Quality Control, and Quality Assurance. The workbook provided simulated laboratory problems for the student to solve and make inferences about laboratory situations.
Measurement variability exercises included counting of black dots among white dots on a printed version of a counting chamber (hemacytometer) and the measurement of the length of a rectangular figure printed on a clear plastic sheet. The results by each student, entered on a 3 x 5 card, were used to illustrate variability in a frequency distribution tabulation on a blackboard. To demonstrate the analytical process, each table was declared to be a simulated laboratory and each laboratory was given a plastic device and a trip balance. The plastic device is illustrated in figure 4. At the top of the device there was a drawer facing downward and at the bottom there was a drawer facing upward. In between the drawers there were two built-in thin plastic obstacles with some holes. The bottom drawer contained black, red, white, blue, and 103 yellow balls. The largest balls were black. The other balls were smaller than the black balls and the smallest balls were yellow. I told the students that they should imagine that these balls were molecules of different sizes and the large black balls were meant to simulate proteins. The object of the exercise was to determine the number of yellow balls without counting them. To illustrate the separation step of an analytical procedure, the plastic device would be turned upside down and shaken according to the directions. The black balls were too large to fall through the holes of the simulated filters and some of the simulated molecules were too large to fall through the lowest filter. What usually occurred was that some yellow balls were entrapped by the large proteins (black balls). Some of the smaller balls other than the yellow ones pass through to the bottom drawer. Having weighed the top drawer before turning over the devise and waving the know about it and draw one can calculate the weight of the balls in the drawer. A standard number of balls-weight of the yellow balls relationship had been determined previously. Each laboratory had been given a set of vials, where two vials were empty (tares), and each of five vials contained 30 yellow balls. With those vials the students at each table were able determine the weight of 30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 yellow balls and prepare a calibration relationships. The results at each table (lab)of s were tabulated on the blackboard. Very rarely did anyone find the final answer to be 103 yellow balls. However, a frequency distribution diagram did show answers that were close to the true value. This turned out to be a fun exercise. It also led to serious discussions with the class of such as the analytical process, separation of the desired constituent, interferences, measurement of the desired constituent, standards, and interlaboratory variation.
While thinking about how to design exercises for the statistics and quality control segments of this workshop, I became intrigued with Shewhart’s sampling experiments. A bowl from Shewhart’s kitchen was used to hold numbered, metal lined, disk shaped tags, which he drew at random, recorded the number on the disk, returned the disk to the bowl, mixed the population of disks, drew another disk, recorded the number, etc. From sampling experiment data, Shewhart developed the concept of quality control charts.
With lectures and classroom exercises designed to illustrate inferences about a universe population from numbers recorded after random drawings with replacement after each drawing, from the 1,000 chips in each of several boxes, rather than bowls. What I tried to illustrate is that with a limited number of chips drawn at random, one could not predict the frequency-distribution of the universe of chips in the boxes. I also tried to illustrate that if one plotted histograms of means of replicate vs the frequency of occurrence, rather than single numbers recorded from the drawings vs frequency of occurrence, regardless of the frequency-distribution of the original universe, a fiited curve would tend toward a normal, or Gaussian, distribution. Of course if one plotted the means of subsets of four, or more, the better the fit of a Gaussian distribution. In a classroom exercise means and standard deviations were calculated from sets of numbers drawn, at random, from a box of chips. The difficult part of all the above was the introduction of the concept that one might consider that the variation of test results from a theoretical true value sought with an analytical process was due to random errors, as long as assignable causes of error were eliminated.
To teach the concept of the quality control chart in a clinical chemistry laboratory, I created a chemistry test for a fictitious desired constituent in a very large serum pool; I named the molecule mures (serum spelled backwards). It was then specified that small aliquots of the large serum pool were inserted into the daily runs of patient specimens for which there were requests for the mures test. I had created sets of chips in which I ascribed a true concentration value for mures. Using a set of chips on which only random errors occurred. Data for the analyses of the fictitious mures were generated by selecting chips on which concentration values were written. Two control charts were illustrated. The means and two standard deviation limits were calculated from the first ten values (or first ten days) of results for mures and on graph paper the days were labeled on the x-axis and the means and two-standard devuiation limits drawn along the y-axis. Being that the erros were random, the plot of points beyond 10-days were within the two-standard deviation limits. Another plot came from the calculation of the means and standard deviations from replicate test results. On the same chips I used for this exercise, I used another color of ink to write in numbers which would produce errors due to assignable causes. Of course on examining the plotted data one could see trends of upward or downward movement or better yet, points outside of the two-standard deviation limits. Classroom discussions were lively after these exercises.
To begin implementing the quality control workshop, I had a local company fabricate the plastic device described above. I also ordered lots of the colored balls also described above, and Ohaus two-platform balances. I was able to demonstrate and evaluate the plastic device segment of the workshop at the AACC Southeast Section meeting which took place Thursday, October 22, 1970 through Saturday, October 24, 1970, in Birmingham, Alabama, at the Guest House Motor Inn. My presentation took place late in the afternoon on Friday, October 22, 1970. The description of my proposed presentation that I submitted for the meeting was as follows: A critical evaluation of the training technique demonstration will be requested from the clinical chemists at the meeting. A plastic devices containing groups of balls representing molecules of blood constituents, will be used as a model system to simulate the analytical process. Calibration curves will be prepared and simulated analyses performed. The data from the model system exercise will be used as a basis for the discussion of the isolation of the desired constituent techniques, specificity, interferences, precision of an analytical method, the differences between analytical methods, accuracy, eras, bias, and variability of class results.
I received an invitation from Russell Eilers, M.D., to participate as a member of the faculty at the 21st Annual Postgraduate Symposium at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, Kansas. The dates for the symposium were November 18 through 20, 1970. During my three days at the symposium I led discussions about quality assurance for clinical chemistry in groups limited to 30 medical technologists. On the last day of the meeting, late in the afternoon I participated on a panel to answer and discuss questions posed by medical technologists. On a lighter side, one day, Dr. Eilers invited me and several other faculty members to partake of a Kansas City steak dinner. At this dinner I ahad an embarrassing moment. I am not a wine drinker and I was ignorant of the procedure to accept wine poured from a newly-opened bottle. For some reason, after wine had been ordered the waiter came to me instead of the host and offered me some wine in a glass. I had to be told that I should taste it and either accept or reject it. After accepting the wine the host eased the situation and we even had a good laugh. All in all, I had an enjoyable evening.
As we were informed that the manuals we developed for the quality control workshop would be ready in July, 1971, I arranged to present the course in a number of western states and attend the annual AACC meeting in Seattle, Washington, from August 8-13, 1971. Then I would present the course in Portland, Oregon before heading back to Atlanta. According to plans, after flying to New Mexico, I would rent a car which would be returned to the rental agency in Portland, Oregon. I was able to arrange for Galla to accompany me on this trip. Unfortunately, I was stricken with an inflamed gallbladder, so Dr. Eloise Evenson and Pat Duncan took my place. Two weeks after my gall bladder was excised surgically, Galla and I did get to attend the AACC meeting. We then joined Dr. Evenson in Portland. I was a bit disappointed when I attended the workshop by Dr. Evensen as it had no relationship to the course that I had planned. This was probably due to the fact that the manuals had been printed late in July and there was little chance for Dr. Evensen and Pat Duncan to absorb the exercises in the manuals.
On my return to Atlanta, I scheduled a number of presentations of the quality-control workshop. Because of CL 67, it became imperative for clinical laboratory personnel to institute quality control procedures, the schedule that I arranged with various state health departments was rather ambitious. Although Dr. Cavanaugh approved my schedule, he suggested that it might be physically wearing as extensive travel was involved. It did turn out that Dr. Cavanaugh was right.
During the fall of 1971 through the end of March in 1972, I presented the workshop in such cities as Atlanta, Georgia, , Detroit, Michigan, New York, New York, Buffalo, New York, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Hartford, Connecticut. Looking back, I am sure about the cities that I mentioned, however, I suspect that I did present the workshop in a few other cities. It was soon after my last presentation, I was transferred into another unit. This was a rather an abrupt end to a successful workshop. However, at the AACC annual meeting in Cincinnati, Ohio, it was August 22 and 23, 1972, that I participated in the first of the AACC educational workshops. My contribution was the presentation of a statistical quality control workshop.
Letters from some of those who invited me to present the quality control workshop indicated that my efforts were very much appreciated. I was sorry to see that the manuals and plastic device to illustrate the analytical process were discarded. It is probable that the only copies of the manuals and one of the plastic devices are the ones on a shelf of a bookcase in my home. These items could be the basis for a book entitled Quality Control for Dummies.
The result of the my being on the road so often for two years was physical and emotional exhaustion. With the passage of time, it has become difficult to remember what my accomplishments were on each of my travel assignments. I spent a week at the Michigan State Health Departmrnt in Lansing and all I remember about that trip is the lonely feelking each evening in a hotel room. However, some events seem as though they occurred yesterday. I remember sitting alone at a table for four in the Little Rock, Arkansas, hotel restaurant and looking at other tables for four each with only one occupant. These tables including mine were in a row parallel to a large glass wall. I suddenly had the desire to call out and say why don’t we all eat together rather than each of us eating dinner alone. This I did not do both this incident made me realize how lonely I was during the evenings while traveling. I did call Galla as often as I could during my lonely evenings, but these calls lasted for a short time and just increased the lonely feeling after finishing our conversations.
John Pybus, and a clinical chemist at the Auckland Hospital came with his wife, Jessica, to the United States from New Zealand to spend several years working in the clinical chemistry laboratory at Hartford Hospital. George Bowers and Robert McComb were the co-directors of the excellent laboratory. I met John several times at some committee meetings. John was one of the students in my quality control workshop one I presented it in Hartford, Connecticut . It would be difficult to forget how John asked many penetrating questions during the course sessions. Also, at the end of the session in Hartford, I was able to stop on my way to New York City in a rental car to visit my friends, from Columbia University, Abraham and Evelyn Savitzky. I was impressed with the contemporary architecture of their home near Norwich, Connecticut. I would have liked Galla to have seen their home.
Another lasting memory is one when I was flying from Boston to New York City. This time of year was the fall and the airliner was flying rather low along the southern coast of Connecticut. The light from the sun just before it’set seem to enhance the yellow, orange, and red colors of the maple trees below. The fall maple tree colors were just outstanding.
John Krickel, an education expert in the Laboratory Training Section, accompanied me to Nashville TN to observe my quality control workshop presentation is scheduled for November 29-December 3, 1971. Being that John having a federal government driver’s license , we were able to use one of
CDC’s cars. After arriving at a Nashville motel in the late afternoon, John insisted that we should take a walk around the area. It was a cold and nasty day. Back in the inner room of motel I shared
a room with John. I did not sleep very well that night. During the first morning of the course sessions I was in the midst of a lecture when I suddenly felt extremely tired and thought that the pancakes I had for breakfast that morning were pieces of lead weighing me down. Suddenly blackness began to engulf me and when I open my eyes I was lying on the floor. I had passed out. Although I insisted that after a few moments I could continue my lecture, John canceled the course. We drove home without much conversation. All my travel had finally taken its toll. The results of of this episode was a transfer into another unit where much travel was not needed.
From April, 1972, until August 30, 1986, when I retired, my assignments had to do with laboratory improvement projects. As of April 11, 1972 I was assigned to the Center for Disease Control, Laboratory Division, Licensure and Development Branch, Proficiency Testing Section, Clinical Chemistry Unit where David Bayse was the Chief Of the Clinical Chemistry Unit. My major responsibility included the planning, development, and organizating the National Reference Laboratory Network in clinical chemistry, involving clinical laboratories located throughout the United States. My assignments were related to the job description. At sometime I developed a bibliography of publications having to do with quality control in clinical chemistry laboratories. I also prepared a document of which the title was The History of Proficiency Testing. This was an internal document that was not submitted for publication to a pertinent journal.
On June 5, 1974 I was assigned to develop programs directed toward the transfer of information to national and international targets from the Center’s standardization of clinical chemistry methods and the development of national reference methods for clinical chemistry. For this asignment, my workplace changed from the main headquarters building on Clifton Road to the Chamblee, Georgia, campus. This campus was on Buford Highway and adjoined an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Building and parking lot. Also, in back of the CDC Chamblee campus, separated by a chain-link fence, one could see one end of a DeKalb Peachtree Airport runway. Most of the buildings were wooden structures that had been army barracks. My office was in the library building. Claudia Lewis was in charge of the library and was an expert in doing literature searches. Working with an elderly woman, Alyce Polk,an assistant librarian, made information less tedious . I became the major author of a uric acid annotated bibliography published in October, 1974. Due to outside demand this bibliography was reprinted in March, 1975. The annotated bibliography contained 238 citations. Two hundred twenty-four of these articles annotated pertained to uric acid analytical methodology and the other 14 articles pertained to normal values and the physiological effects of uric acid. The annotations were arranged chronologically by years and alphabetically by author within each year
An annotated bibliography for glucose, of which I was the major author, was published in December, 1976. This annotated bibliography contained 905 citations. About 90 percent of the articles annotated pertained to glucose analytical methodology and the other 10 percent consisted of clinical articles which pertain ed to the glucose tolerance test and normal values. The annotations were arranged chronologically by year and alphabetically by author within each year. An alphabetical list of authors, along with the year of publication and citation identification number was included with the annotated bibliography. The glucose annotated bibliography was followed by a subject index.
Radin N, Bayse D, Lewis C, Polk AM. Uric acid, an annotated bibliography. Atlanta: Center for Disease Control, 1974:57 pp.
Radin N, Polk AM, Richardson NM, Lewis C. Glucose, an annotated bibliography. Atlanta: Center for Disease Control, 1976:228 pp.
Radin N, Polk AM, Lewis CB. Subject index to glucose, an annotated bibliography. Atlanta: Center for Disease control, 1977:29 pp.
Galla usually came with me to attend AACC annual and southeastsection meetings. Dates and cities in which AACC Southeast Section Meetings we attended after 1971 are as follows: October 1977 New Orleans; LA; October 1978 Birmingham, Al; March 1979 Lafayette, LA; April 1980 Charleston, SC; October 1980 Birmingam AL; April 1981 (Oak Ridge Conference and AACC SE Section Meeting) Oak Ridge, TN; October 1982 Lexington, KY; April 1983 Gatlinburg, TN; and April 1986 Knoxville, TN. Some of the AACC Annual Meetings I attended with Galla after 1970 are as follows: August 1874 Las Vegas, NV;August 1978 San Francisco, CA; July 1979 New Orleans, LA; July 1980 Boston, MA; and July 1984 Washington DC.
David Bayse became intrigued with the information that Allergan, the producer of medical products to improve patient outcomes, had been computerizing laboratory data in place of laboratory notebooks. At the end of June 1968, I was given an assignment to visit Allergan, in Irvine, California. I had some personal interest in visiting Allergan as I had been using some of their ophthalmic topical eyedrop solutions. So on Thursday, July 20, 1978, I spent a day at Allergan.
I am quite sure that I was not exposed to some of their industrial secrets, but I got a very good briefing on and during laboratory data into a computer system. When I was given this assignment, David Bayse told me that as long as I was on the West Coast I may as well attend the AACC annual meeting in San Francisco. When I did return to the CDC, I submitted a report describing the Allergan computerized laboratory data system. As far as I know, until my retirement laboratory data was not computerized due to the reluctance of technologists to enter data into a computer system.
1458 SHEFFIELD DRIVE Soon after moving into our house we put up our ping-pong table in the lower recreation room. Eventually, when the ping-pong table was no longer being used so we just folded two it up and got it out of the way. For the recreation room we purchased a sofa bed which was 66 inches wide and had a black plastic covoring.
During the years that we lived in the house on Sheffield Drive speeding cars hit and destroyed our mailbox post as the sharp curve was not expected. Eventually, I made a wooden sleeve for a 4" x 4"mailbox post and embedded it in a concrete base. Then I slipped-in a post and if it was destroyed I could just pill it out of the sleeve and replace a new post easily. I also rolled a large rock and placed it a few feet to the right of the post. The mailbox post was not hit again for the rest of the we lived in the house.
One of the flaws in the construction of the house was that there were no roof gutters. Rainwater flowing down house walls to the ground below can cause a great deal of damage. basements. It wasn’t long before we had house and carport gutters installed.
According to Galla, there needed to be changes in the kitchen configuration. During the first few months of 1968, we visited home shows and discussed possible modifications. On June 27, 1968, we made a down payment of $1,175.00 for a contractor, Aristocrat Industries, Inc., to remodel our kitchen. The balance of $2,385.00 was due upon completion of this enterprise. The contract specified the installation of new kitchen dark walnut-grain plastic-faced cabinets over and under the counter tops. The wall between the kitchen and dining room was demolished. A wide counter with cabinets beneath with doors on the kitchen and dining room replaced the wall. Above this wide counter cabinets, with doors on the kitchen and dining room sides , were suspended from the ceiling. A rectangular stainless steel sink bowl with an Elkay single mixing faucet and a garbage disposall unit were installed along the window wall. After removing the cherry wood top and wheels from the dishwasher we had purchased , it was installed permanently under the counter next to the sink. A new ventilation hood and electric stove with an oven were installed along the wall between the kitchen and stairway. The wall opposite the window wall was the back of the yellow-bricked fireplace only the kitchen side had red bricks. Aong the brick wall we paced abrown-paneled side-by-side refrigerator and a cabinet made with the cherry wood top and wheels from the dishwasher.
During October, 1968, we had the upper level wooden floors refinished. In January, 1969, I installed three Lightolier lighting tracks with lamps betweem the ceiling beams along the living room window wall and overhead lamps. I did electricalwork myself. Even though the Georgia summers are hot and humid, we managed to stay reasonably cool using fans to pull air through the house. We finally relented and installed window air conditioners installed in the living room, the recreation room and the large lower level bedroom.
In January 1969, we ordered two Barzilay Equipment Cabinet kits. These cabinets were designed to store a record player, phonograph records, and an amplifier which also wasn’t AM/FM radio. Eventually a tape deck was added to our stereo equipment. The kits arrived while I was recuperating from my first cataract surgical procedure. Galla restrained me from opening the kit boxes so I could assemble the cabinets. When I did assemble the cabinets they were a nice addition to our furniture collection. The cabinets were made of American Black Walnut wood. Access to the interior of the cabinets were with walnut wood tambour doors. The kits included the means to apply an oil finish to the walnut wood.. The cabinets were placed at the house living room left side wall. On each side of the cabinets we placed vertical slabs of 1/4 inch walnut plywood. On the plywood, we placed vertical standards and brackets which held bookshelves. On the top shelf at each side, we placed our stereo speakers.
In July 1971, major skylight repais were necessary. I had to climb to the roof each year with roofing cement to ensure the resealing of the skylight and fireplace chimney. In October, 1976 we had major carport and house siding replacements in the because ofrotting wood. The roofing shingles were replaced in 1977. Major repairs had to be made in 1983. In April 1983, house ad carport siding had to be replaced. The deck was not only rebuilt but supporting posts from under the deck beams to the concrete apron outside of the recreation room were installed. When one of the rotting siding plywood panels outside of our bedroom was removed a dead bird was found in the insulation.
Sometime in the mid-1970s, Galla decided that we could use more storage space. Galla designed that type of cabinet she wanted me to construct. Actually, for versatility, Galla wanted me to make 48 inch wide cabinets, two 36 inch wide cabinets, two 30 inch cwide abinets, and two 24 inch wide cabinets. The cabinets were to have ceramic tile tops and drawers above the cabinet doors. My first reaction was that you would be too difficult to make. But I did make them. I used a combination of fir plywood, walnut plywood, solid walnut wood, and walnut veneer tape. I was proud of myself for constructing drawers with dovetail joints. For the tops of these cabinets we selected 2" x 2" tan tiles and dark brown grout. Watco Danish Oil was used to finish the cabinets.
Because of the development of a severe case of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), it became necessary for me to sleep with my upper body elevated. Using about 3" x 1" pine boards, I created two frames the sizes of standard twin beds. On one of the frames I connected the two long sides multiple cross-pieces between the long sides. On the other frame the two long sides were connected with multiple large slabs of thick wide pine boards. This frame was to be the bed I would be using. I attached 11 inch wide walnut wood to the front, back and one side of each frame. I attached two casters in front and two casters underneath the front and back of each frame. When two structures were rolled together, I had essentially created four sides of an open box into which twin-sized springs and mattresses could be inserted. I attached hasps to the inside of the back and front side w
of each bed which enabled them to be locked to keep them together. On the bed for my use I placed auto jacks on the wood slabs at each end. I had steel bars welded onto each auto jack. The length of these bars was slightly less than the width of my bed. I mounted a large piece of plywood on the bars. On my side of the bed, I left openings through which I could push a crank to manipulate the height of each jack. Thus, I was able to adjust the jacks so the plywood could be made to slope in a way that my upper body would be elevated. On this plywood we placed a mattress only. On the other twin we placed a inner spring and mattress. If we desired, I could manipulate the jacks so that the tops of each mattress would be at the same height.
The chores necessary to maintain our property outside of the house and repairs that seemed to occur within the house and on the roof became a bit difficult for me. Being that I was thinking of retirement at the age of 65, we sporadically looked at apartments and condominiums. However, we did not commit ourselves to make a move.
I constructed out of walnut wood a long desk which rested on triangular legs in which the vertical parts of the triangles were bolted into the studs on the living room wall news stairway. The desk had a black plastic top. I also constructed a bank of drawers on the right side of the desk. Above the desk we placed standards and brackets for walnut wood shelves.
Occasionally we would visit the House of Denmark to look at furniture which was on sale. On one visit, Galla became interested in a contemporary teak rolltop desk. The price stopped us from buying it. However, at home Galla and I talked about it. Seeing Galla’s interest, I said something like lets go buy the desl. This we did and on April 30, 1983 we purchased the desk for $359.47 and a separate drawer unit, which could be placed under the right or left side of the desk, for $132.87. On the same day we pirchased two teak bookcases, two cabinet doors to close in the two bottom shelves of one bookcae, and three extra shelves. The shelves could be placed at adjustable heights in the bookcases.
NATE AND GALLA In September 1971, I was able to arrange a combination of annual leave with an official assignment topresent a quality control work shop in New York City. We drove to Ann Arbor, Michigan to leave Rachel at the University of Michigan in time for the start of the fall semester. Of course we had a chance to visit Norman and Norma before we left Ann Arbor. After stopping in Rochester, New York, where we visited former neighbors, we continued on to New York City. The workshop was prsented in a New York City Department of Health Building. Galla’s father joined us on our drive back to Atlanta. Part of our route to Atlanta inluded a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had to drive slowly, but the view was well worth the extra time that it took.
MONROE SOLOMON Between March 3 and 6, 1973, we drove to New York City because Galla’s father was in Coney Island Hospital after a heart attack. At the age of 76, Monroe Solomon died on Monday, April 30, 1973. We were back in New York City between May 3 and 6, 1973, for the funeral where Galla’s father was laid to rest.
Ralph G Ledley, Attorney, handled the Monroe Solomon Estate. According to our financial records, in March, 1973 Galla received bonds worth $3,124.36 before her father died. Arnold Rood, Louise’s husband, and I were the executors of the Monroe Solomon will. I waived receiving an executor’s fee while Arnie did not.The list of disbursements from the estate is as folllows:
11 Shares The Columbia Gas System, Inc.
05 Shares Columbia Energy Group
May 5, 1973 From Monroe Solomon’s and Marie W Sommers Estate $7,500.00
August 17, 1973 US Savings Bonds, Series E August 17, 1973
The Equitable Life Assurance Sociey of te United States Policy #7, 693, 634
Ordinary life policy Facevalue : $2,000.00 Annual Payments $61.50
Beneficiary Daughter Galla Radin The amount of procees paid to Galla Radin is $1,686.18. Galla Radin will get $92.74 (Taxable $24.81 NonTaxable $67.93) annually with 20 years guaranteed payments.
July 19, 1973 Federal Employees Group Life Insurance $1,000.00
NATE AND GALLA When I was stationed at the CDC headquater’s campus on Clifton Road there was no need for us to own a second car. If Galla needed to use the car, she, or the children , would take me and pick me up as the CDC headquarter buildings were less than two miles from our house. When I was stationed at the Chamblee campus, the days that Galla needed the car, I would use local bus transportation. We finally broke down and in August 1975, we purchased a purchased, a Plymouth Valiant 4-door sedan for $4, 478.90.
MARY ORLOFF RADIN After the death of my father, my step-mother, Mary, returned to Arkansas where she packed and moved to New York City. I am uncertain about the time, but Mary ended up as a resident of a Jewish senior citizen retirenet community housed in the former Half Moon Hotel, in Coney Island, Brooklym, New York. As I undrstand it, it was my Aunt Fanny, a cousin of Mary, who provided the finabcial means for Mary to live in the senior citizen home. The original Half Moon Hotel was a 225 foot tall, 14 story hotel that opened in 1927 on the Boardwalk at West 29th Street. It is best known as the location where Abe Reles, informant for the FBI who brought down numerous members of Murder, Inc., "fell" to his death on November 12, 1941 a few hours before he was scheduled to testify against Albert Anastasia. The name "Half Moon" refers to the name of explorer Henry Hudson's ship, which anchored off Gravesend Bay in Brooklyn (the location of Coney Island), while searching for a short cut to Asia. In the 1970s it became a senior citizen's home. It was demolished in 1995.
We were able to visit Mary at the home quite a few times. Our impression of the former hotel location was that the area had deteriorated into a slum. After parking our car, on approaching the home we observed many senior citizens sitting in a row against one of the building walls. Mary shared a room with one or two women. It seemed that there was not much in the way of organized activies, so women just sat around and talked. It was Rita Immerman who called us in Atlanta to let us know that Mary died on August 10, 1976, at the age of 61 years. Mary was buried next to my father in a grave a short distance from the grave of my mother.
NATE AND GALLA In 1980 we traded our Plymouth Station Wagon in for a Buick Century Station Wagon. The Buick dealer salesman who drove our Plymouth station wagon was imopressed by the classical music coming from our car radio and he told us that he was an amateur opera singer. It was the same opera singer who handled the trade in of our Plymouth Valiant Sedan for a Buick Regal 4-Door Sedan on June 05, 1982. The cost of the sedan was $9083.07.
Charles Steindel wa among Jared’s chess-playing friends at Briarcliff High School. At one time when I gave Charles a ride to his home, which was close to ours, he happened to tell me that his father was an alumnus of the University of California at Berkeley. I think that I said something like it would be nice to meet his father. I do remember the year, but I advised Charles how to get a summer job at CDC and he took advantage of the advice. Charles eventually earned a Ph.D. degree in economics and wound up as an emplyee of the Federal reserve System in New York City. It turns out that the older brother of Charles was Steve Steindel, Ph.D., a clinical chemist at the Piedmont Hospital. During the summer of 1981, I met with Steve Steindel on a CDC assignment. Before leaving his laboratory office, I told Steve that like his father I was an alumnus of the University of California at Berkeley. Because the California football team will be playing a game with the University of Georgia football team, I asked Steve if his father would be interested in attending the game. The result of this conversation was that Marvin and Ruth Steindel came to our house one evening and it was there that we made the decision to attend the football game. So on Saturday, August 25, 1981, we all went to the game at Athens, Georgia, in the Steindel’s car. It was just as well that they were not very many rooters for California as the team lost the game.
After our first visit with the Marvin and Ruth Steindel at our house and the attendance at the California-Georgia football game our friendship flourished. For many years, usually on a Saturday night, we all went out to eat dinner at some restaurant and then return to either of our homes or conversation and dessert. To the chagrin of our wives we would all go to the end of the year party of the Atlanta University of California Alumni Club. Marvin was from San Francisco and a member of the class of ‘42. He was an accountant professionally. At the time we met, the Steindel’s had an office in the basement of their house from which Marvin conducted his own accounting business. Ruth was a native of New York City and I believe she had worked for the New York City Police Department. At the age of 85 years, Marvin died on Friday, May 5, 2006. It was a miserable rainy day that Galla and I went to the graveside service at the Crest Lawn Cemetery on Sunday, May 7, 2006. After selling her house and moving to a Sandy Springs retirement community and our relocation to a retirement community in Stone Mountain we have not communicated with Ruth Steindel. We were aware of Steve Steindel’s employment at CDC for a number of years and I was in the year 2010 that I learned ht had retired.
SELMA SOLOMON After the death of her sister May and her brother Monroe, Selma remained in the apartment in Brooklyn. At the beginning of the decade of 1980, when we visited Selma we found that our memory was failing. It was Galla’s sister Louise, who essentially became Selma’s caretaker. Selma refused to move from the apartment to a retirement community. At the beginning of the year 1983, Louise called Galla to ask her to become responsible for taking care of Selma. This would be difficult as Atlanta was a long way from Brooklyn New York. As we understand it, Selma federal and had an arm bone fracture. She was hospitalized and against her will, Louise relocated Selma to a nursing home. Selma died on June 14, 1983. Galla and I flew to New York to attend Selma’s funeral. Galla received $35,000.00 on July 23, 1983 and $20,000.00 on July 23, 1983 from the Selma Solomon Estate.
JARED AND RACHEL Jared was 23 years old and Rachel 21 years old at the time they graduated. There were now young adults whose future was in their own hands. We as parents were there for them from birth to the present and would still be there for them allthough they would be leading independent lives. A comprehensive history of the lives led by Jared and Rachel after graduation can only be written by each of them. What I can only record are major events which we learned about during interactions with us.
After getting his baccalaureate degree in the field of chemistry, Jared worked at the Atlanta Water Department as a laboratory tecnician. At this time he shared an apartment in East Point (South of Atlanta) with a college friend. For a while Jared shared an apartment with a college in East Point (South of Atlanta). Not caring for the job as a chemist, Jared began taking computer science courses at Georgia State University. After his apartment mate got married Jared moved back home. He quit working at the Atlanta Water Department to go full time at Georgia State Univesity for a Master’s degree in computer science. It wasn’t long before Jared got an offer by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) to work in their laboratories as a chemist. After an interview at the FDA, Jared told us that if he accepted the p[osition he would eventually be involved with computers. We persuaded Jared to accept the position. This he did.
While living at home Jared purchased a Tandy computer. Tandy was one of the companies (along with Commodore International and Apple) that started the personal computer revolution, with their TRS 80 (1977) computer. Jared suggested that this was a good time to purchase a Tandy stock shares. Jared and we each purchased 100 shares of Tandy stock. Probably, because of the popularity of the personal computer, the market value of Tandy increased enough that within one year ordered stock splits twice. So we wound up with 400 shares of Tandy each. I do not know what Jared did with his shares, but when we found that the market value of Tandy began to decrease, we sold 200 shares at first and then sold the other 200 shares.
Meanwhile, Rachel, and Bowen, began working for a graduate degree at the University of California at Santa Cruz. During the interval of 1974 to 1977, the relationship with Bowen ended and a relationship came about with William Dupree, another graduate student. It was in 1977 that Rachel and William left the university without finishing the requirements for an advanced degree. Rachel and William came to see us after they left the West Coast. They apparently decided that they did not need an advanced degree to work with computers. They also said that they want to find a place to live and then they would look for a job in that area. They eventually settled in Westborough, Massachusetts. Rachel and William went to work at Data General and they were both in the same unit as software engineers. Rachel remained in the job from 1977 to 1984 (almost 7 years). William left Data General before Rachel and went to work at Applix. After Rachel left Data General she went to work at Applix. The part of Applix she was working for was later spun off and turned into a company called VistaSource. William left Applix before Rachel did during the year of 1984.
Jared was a chemist at the FDA laboratories from 1978 to 1980. He was a bit disillusioned with the job as there was no work with computers. Galla was a member of an Atlanta chapter of ORT, a non governmental organization whose mission is the advancement of the Jewish people. For a while a small number of ORT members and their spouses met once a month, on Sunday evenings, to discuss current events. One evening when we were having a conversation with Elliot Rhode, he mentioned that he was looking for someone to write software. We immediately said we had a son who might be interested. It was in 1981 that Jareed went to work for Elliot Rhode Associates. The place of work was at the home of Elliot Rhode, the converted garage. The work consisted of software development for business applications and telephone support. I believe also that Jared did some travel to work with business clients directly. Through some colleagues, Jared was able to leave Elliot Rhode Associates in 1983 to take a job with a corporation which because of a series of merges led to employment by Research Associates of America (RIA). Jared was a software engineer until the year 2000 when the company left the metropolitan Atlanta area. As Jared believed that with his savings and investments he did not need to leave his home area.
Sometime after going to work for the FDA or Elliot Rhode Associates, Jared moved into an apartment on Peachtree Hills, a street within the city limits of Atlanta. As I remember this apartment, it was within a complex similar to the apartment complex we lived in when we were in Harrisburg. The Jared moved to a Post apartment on Roswell Road, north of Abernathy Road. Finally, Jared bought a condominium apartment in Smyrna, a city northeast of Atlanta. When RIA moved its offices to a newly built site in Kennesaw, Georgia, Jared sold this condominium apartment and bought a house in Kennesaw.
When Rachel and William began working at Data General, in Westborough, Massachusetts, they rented a house on Main Street. Eventually, they purchased a 55-acre tract of land. A narrow driveway, which is off 57 Flanders Road, was, and still is, a bumpy dirt road about one quarter of a mile long. At the entry from the street there are private homes on both sides of the driveway. There is a pond in a swampy area which lies alongside the driveway and back of the lots of the private homes. Each side of the driveway is covered with foliage and trees. The clear area at the end of the driveway is surrounded by woods. The contours of the clear area were such that Rachel and William designed and built by themselves an earth-sheltered home.
NATE: MEDICAL HISTORY Toward the end of 1968 the cataracts formed in both eyes prevented me from driving and I had increasing difficulty when I tried to read letters and documents. Being extremely nearsighted, I found that by taking my glasses off I could read by pulling the letter or document very close to my eyes. On February 12, 1969 cataract surgerywas performed on my -left eye/by Dr. David Levenson, at the Crawford Long Hospital. At that time, the entire lens was removed which meant that the eye had a semicircular cut which required five stitches to be closed. It also required my head to be immobilized by sandbags for 48 hours and for me to stay in a hospital bed for seven days. When I came home from the hospital I was struck by the vivid colors of book jackets. Apparently the blogtted out vision due to the cataracts had me in a world which was colorless. Dr. Levinson suggesed t that that I should take leave from my job for at least three months. I told thim that this would be impossible for we did not have the financial means for me to stay awa from my job. I believe that after seven days in the hospital and two to three weeks home I went back to work. I was loaned a pair of glasses at Dr. Levinson’s office until I my eye healed enough to be fitted with proper classes. With the loaned glasses and latereven with permanent glasses, I had very poor depth perception. I began to use a cane to prevent falls from missteps.
Surgery to remove my lens from my left eye occurred in November, 1969. After surgery my left eye was immobilized by a protective device which was held in place by surgical tape. A mask with a hole for my right eye prevented thr use of glasses. Laying flat on my back on my hospital bed, I was bored as timeseemed to pass slowly. On Saturday, there were two football games on TV which could relieve the boredom somewhat but my vision was blurred. I suddenly thought that a pinhole is a good lens. In a bedside table drawer I had a pen and some 3 x 5 cards. I punched a tiny hole on a card, tore off part of the card to make it smaller,and then shoved the card under the mask so I could see out of the tiny hole with my right eye. It was a very good lens and I was enjoying an afternnon football game when Dr. Levenson walked into my room. Dr. Levenson stood at bedside, looked at the TV set, then after about five minutes, said, “Don’t you dare squint,” Then Dr. Levenson left the room. I was back at work soon after I left the hospital. A day before Christmas, when CDC was just about empty of employees, I was in my office when Dr. David Sencer, the head of CDC, and some members of his staff walked into my office. Dr. Sencer asked why I was working. I told him that I did not have anny annual leave which would permit me to take the day off. He just said, “Go home amyway.”
Due to the cataract surgery where my lenses were removed, my condition of extreme mythe opia (nearsighted) changed to the condition of hyperopia (farsightd). In my case, the myopic condition was counteracted by the hyperopia condition enough that corrective lenses did not have to be labeled coke-bottle-bottoms (very thick glass lenses). They use of plastic negates the need for glass lenses. The plastics used for lenses bend light more sharply than glass. Thus, lenses for aphakia (aphakia is the absence of the lens of the eye) glasses can be less thick, and lighter, if they are made of plastic rather than with glass. Also, because of the five stitches needed to close the semicircular cut made in each eye to remove the lenses the healing of the cornea caused the condition astigmatism (astigmatism, a common condition where the cornea is not perfectly spherical). On account of this condition, glasses had to be corrected for the astigmatic condition.
My struggle with iritis did not end after the cataract surgical procedures. I still had to use the topical steroid Neodecadron. Flare-ups of the iritis were controlled by steroid injections in a site just below the eye orbit. and because of this, it wasn’t long before it was found that I had increased eye fluid pressure, or one can say steroid-induced glaucoma. For this condition I began to use pilocarpine eye drops. When Dr. Levenson brought in a device to measure visual fields it was found that the glaucoma had caused some retinal damage. Also, due to aphakic glasses, there was a decided decrease in my peripheral vision. This is like when one uses magnifying glasses, the greater the magnification, the lesser there is of the visual area. There was a time when the iritis became so inflammatory that topical medication was ineffective. This necessitated subconjunctival injections of steroids. This struggle with my eyesight had a great effect on my career. Eye pain, blepharitis (inflammation of the eyelids), and hemorrhages of the eyelids and surrounding areas, because of the steroid use, are conditions that plagued me for many years.
About the beginning of the month of June, 1971, I awoke one night with excruciating abdominal pain. The pain abated after several hours. In a telephone conversation with Dr. Crank, I was told that the pain might have been from my gall bladder. Being that I was preparing for my western trip, I decided to ignore the incident. However, that was a bad decision. On June 28, the abdominal pain struck again. This time at the DeKalb General Hospital I was subjected to a x-ray iodinated media dye intraveneously. Moments after the dye began circulating in my blood stream, I beame nauseated and apparently my blood pressure fell enough that I passed out. Emergency measures revived me and in spite of my being sensirive, or allergic, to the iodinated dye, x-ray images indicated a gall bladder problem. I was hospitalized and surgery was to tske plce after the hot gall bladder cooled down. Before surgery took place I was visited by Gerald Cooper and Joe Boutwell. Both told me not to worry about the surgery and that I would be replaced on the western trip by Dr. Eloise Evenson and Pat Duncan. The surgeon, Dr. Giradeaux, on July 4, sat on the side of my bed and said that the operation was in the hands of God. I told him that I wished that the operation was in his hands. Anyway, surgery on July 5 was successful and I still have that scar across my abdomen under the rib cage.
Dr. Ernest Atkins, who in the past interned wtith Gerald Cooper, was the surgeon for amy bilateral hernia operation on October 30, 1978. The surgery took place at a time that I had been using phospholine iodide eye drops to reduce my eye pressures which were not responding to pilocarpine. Without going into t great detail, It had been found that if one had low levels of the enzyme choline esteraase, after anesthesia it took much longer than usual to awaken. I became aware of a side effect of phospholine iodide which was lowering choline esterase blood levels. Before my surgery the low level of choline esterase in my blood stream was confirmed by a blood test. Alerting the anesthesiologist to this fact prevented the adverse effect of the low blood choline esterase level. After the surgical procedure, I was able to discontinue the use of phospholine iodid e and pilocarpine eye drop therapy was reinstituted.
On Friday, April 13, 1984, I was in my office at CDC and a bit before 7 AM. I suddenly felt severe heart palpitations and became nauseated. Eloise Evenson stopped at my office door and said something like the usual good morning and how are you. Automatically, I answered that I am fine and then continued that I needed medical help. Eloise walked away and within moments came into my office with a CDC physician. The physician said he hadn’t seen a patient in two years except those with AIDS. By this time the palpitations and abated. Eloise and the physician remained with me until they CDC medical clinic opened its doors. Dr. Crank and Galla were notified about this incident. I was then taken to the DeKalb General Hospital and I was admitted as a patient. Dr. Crank arranged for me to have an angiogram at the Emory University hospital. To get around my sensitivity to iodinated x-ray dyes I was given a high dose of steroids and an anti-histamine during the procedure. The result of the angiogram was that t75% of my left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) was blocked. The LAD is one of the heart's coronary artery branches from the left main coronary artery which supplies blood to the left ventricle. The LAD is also known as the widow maker. Before being discharged from the DeKalb General Hospital I was again sent to the Emory University Hspital for a thallium stress test. The outcome of the tests was that I would be treated with medications to control my bloodpressure and keep my coronary arteries open rather than undergoing bypass surgery.
I began to investigate the effects of diet on coronary heart disease. A paperback book about reversing heart disease by Dean Ornish, M.D. it impressed me. I adopted the Ornish diet. It was essentially a vegitarian and diary diet. For the next two or three years I ate no red meat, chicken or fish. Low or no fat cheese was available at that time so skim milk was the extent of the diary products that I used. Also, I consumed tofu. To make itbtolerable, I made sandwiches with preserves and tofu. Coupled with diet I joined the Emory Health Enhancement Program (EHEP) in February 20, 1985. I lost weight and became physically fit. However, I did stray from the Ornish diet Subsequent yearly stress tests indicated that my heart condition was stable.
diet because of its severity. But, I was and still am cautios about food as I try to keep way from high-fat and salt intake. At the time I am writing this autobiography, lo- and no-fat diary products are readily available.
We left home on Friday July 27, 1984 to attend the AACC Annual Meting in Washington, DC (July 29-August 03, 1984) and visit family in New York City and Rachel and William in Westborough. At the beginning of our trip I found that increasingly I needed to urinate. I did know that I had an enlarged prostate gland, but there was no consideration to do anything about it at this time. We were back in Atlanta on Thursday, August 9. When I awoke on Friday morning I found myself with chills and fever. I was able to see a physician who is covering four Dr. Crank while he was out of town. It did not take very long before it was discovered that I had a urinary infection. This physician arranged for me to see Nicholas Bath, M.D., that afternoon. I was hospitalized at the cab General Hospital for several days. They use of antibiotics quelled the infection and from mutually the hospital. However, I was kept on a sulfa medication, probably Septra, December 6 when Dr. Bath performed in transurethral resection (TUR) to reduce the size of the prostate gland. A pathological examination of the removed tissue indicated that my enlarged prostate gland was due to benign growth.
NATE There was no Temple Brotherhood until 1979. I do not have the date when the Temple Brotherhood was organized, however, I do know that the first President was Jonathan Wax, an attorney. I became the first secretary of the organization. One of the first programs that we initiated was Lunch with a Rabbi once a month. I remember that with one of the members, Jeff Saunders, who was a physicist, we would pick up food to be served at lunch. At that time the Rabbis were Alvin Sugarman, Fred Davidow, and Beverly Lerner. We also initiated dinners for brotherhood members and their wives. We had some interesting programs at the dinners but there are very few that I recall. I believe that one of our speakers was Neil B. Shulman , M.D., a cardiologist and a published author of a number of books including one from which the movie Doc Hollywood was made. Another speaker at a dinner was Stuart Lewengrub, Director, Southeast Region of the Anti-Defamation League. At a Subday morning meeting, November 18, 1979, Senator Herman Talmage discussed peace in the middle east. On Wednesday, February 18, 1981, we had a dinner program at th Riviera Hyatt House. The program was entitled Views of Creation. The panel of speakers were Rabbi Emanuel Feldman of the Orthodox Beth Jacob Synagogue on Lavista Road, Mr. Hank Rainwater whose topic was Scientific Creationism, and bBiologist Dr. Fred Parrish ,
A gavel which I still have was presented to me by the National Federation of Temple Brotherhoods
had a brass plate on it with the inscription Dr. Nathan Radin President 1981-1982 Temple Brotherhood . The third President was George Puca, from June 1, 1982 -June 30, 1983. Sometime during George Puca’s term as President of the Temple Brotherhood the organization ceased its activities (went kaput)..
Not only were Joe Boutwell and I colleagues in the world of clinical chemistry but we were also socially friends. During my term as President of the Temple Brotherhood, Joe was the President of the Briarcliff Baptist Church Men’s Club. Joe and I initiated monthly interfaith meetings of the church men’s club and the brotherhood. It wasn’t long before we discovered how little each group knew about eah other’s religion. Our sessions were interesting and one accomplishment was interfaith dinners at The temple and the Briarcliff Baptist Church. I am not sure that the dinners were really successful in bringing the people of each religion together in the sense of understanding each other’s beliefs. I know that a number of Temple members were unhappy with the dinnes. At the dinners attendance decreased after the first one. The interfaith sessions of the men’s groups ended on a sour note when one of the church men’s club members asked, Aren’t all Jews rich? Religious beliefs had no role in my working with Joe Boutwell or with our friendship. Why can’t people accept each other as just human beings and accept without rancorthat we each may have different beliefs?
1980 March Evening at emory Washinton week in review
The history of the Cold War between the United States of America and the Soviet Union is a fascinating story of antagonists, from shortly after the end of World War II, who kept building up their stocks of nuclear weapons and were afraid to use them as mutually assured destruction (MAD) would be the result. There were attempts to limit the number of nuclear weapons with two Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties (SALT I and SALT II). Tensions continued intensifying in the early 1980s when Reagan revived the B 1 Lancer program that was canceled by the Carter administration. The B 1B was a multi role, long range bomber, capable of flying intercontinental missions without refueling, then penetrating present and predicted sophisticated enemy defenses. Also, US cruise missiles were installed in Europe, and Reagan announced his experimental Strategic Defense Initiative, dubbed "Star Wars" by the media, a defense program to shoot down missiles in mid flight. President Reagan’s action led to the largest peacetime defense buildup in the history of the United States.
Ground Zero was founded by Roger Molander, who had served as a nuclear strategy specialist on the National Security Council from 1974 to 1981. He was closely involved with U.S. policy formation during the SALT negotiations. Ground Zero had a paid staff at its Washington headquarters and 400 volunteers in 140 cities across the nation. The purpose of Ground Zero was to pose the straightforward questions across the country as to precisely what is the reality and what are the dangers of a nuclear war. Pocket Books rushed into bookstores 100,000 copies of Nuclear War: What's in It for You ?, a paperback primer on the subject, written by Roger Molander. Molander initiated Ground Zero Week (April 18 25, 1982) and hoped it would be for the nuclear movement what Earth Day was for the cause of environmentalism—the catalytic launching of a mass effort to engage the nation in discussions on the threat of nuclear war. Although the focus of the week was on seminars and lectures, the group also mailed out kits to local coordinators with directions on where to place Ground Zero markers and details of the effects of a 1 megaton bomb dropped on their city or town.
Physicians for Social Responsibility was a moribund organization devoted to detailing the medical consequences of nuclear war when Helen Caldicott, 43, then a pediatrician at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston, took over as president in 1979. A zealous opponent of all things nuclear, Caldicott took her message all over the country, and her hellfire oratory soon attracted a following.
One of the most talked about books of the year 1982 was Jonathan Schell's The Fate of the World. First published in The New Yorker, it was an impassioned argument that nuclear weapons have made war obsolete and world government imperative.
I was present at the first meeting of a committee organized to conduct various activities in Atlanta during Ground Zero Week. I was pleased when Robert L. DeHaan, Ph.D., Professor of Cell Biology, at Emory University accepted the chairmanship of the committee. With a number of other capable committee members we conducted a number of successful programs during Ground Zero Week.
My contribution to the week’s activities included the organization of a Town Meeting at the Temple and an article I wrote which was published in the Brotherhood, a publication of the National Federation of Brotherhoods. Working closely with Rabbi Alvin Sugarman, we organized a Town Meeting at the Temple on Wednesday night, April 21, 1982. Officially, The Temple brotherhood was the sponsor of the meeting entitled Nuclear War: What’s In It For You? In the announcement of the meeting in the Jewish weekly newspaper, The Southern Israelite, it was mentioned that the primer for this meeting was the Simon and Schuster paperback Pocket Book Nuclear War: What’s In It For You? Would serve as a primer and it is available in local book stores at a cost of $2.95 a copy. The program on Wednesday night consisted of a panel which included the Chairman and discussion leader Robert Alpern, M.D., psychiatrist and the vice-president of the Temple Brotherhood, James Ruttenber, M.D., Medical Epidemiologist at CDC who discussed the physical and medical effects of a nuclear detonation in downtown Atlanta, Nathan Radin, Ph.D., Research Clinical Chemist, discussed the sizes of the United States and Soviet Union nuclear arsenals, andLewis Lipsius, M.D., psychiatrist, talked about denial and apathy. There was a surprisingly good turn out for this meeting at the Temple. My article, entitled The Nuclear War Issue, appeared in the January-February issue of the magazine Brotherhood.
The 31,000 word article Hiroshima, which took up the entire issue of the New Yorker of August 31, 1946, dealt with the atomic bomb dropped on that Japanese city on August 6, 1945, and its effects on six Japanese citizens. John Hersey interviewed six individuals who survived: and they were aJesuit priest; a widowed seamstress; two doctors; a minister; and a young woman who worked in a factory. The article was publishedlater in a book format by Alfred A. Knopf.
Reverend Mr. Kiyoshi Tanimoto: the Methodist minister interviewed by John Herseywas educated in the United States at Emory University and was 3,500 yards from the center of the explosion. After the war he went on extensive speaking tours of the USA, raising funds for his project of a Hiroshima peace centre, and for the Hiroshima Maidens (The Hiroshima Maidens are a group of twenty five young Japanese women who were seriously disfigured as a result of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima . They were brought to the United States to undergo reconstructive surgery.
The Rev. Tanimoto and his wife came to Atlanta for a week in November 1982. I became involved in setting up some appearances of Rev. Tanimoto. I was able to schedule an appearance at a Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, CDC Chapter meeting. One of CDC’s large auditoriums was filled to capacity to hear what Rev. Tanimoto had to say. Two physicians preceded the Rev. Tanimoto talk and their topic dealt with the medical aftereffects after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. The Rev. Tanimoto talk ended with him showing artwork by some of the survivors of the Hiroshima atomic bomb attack and his last words were repeatedly NO MORE BOMBS. I also scheduled an appearance by Rev. Tanimoto at a morning session where Rabbi Sugarman met with women who were Temple members. After Rev. Tanimoto returned to Japan I received a complimentary letter from him and I was amused when he labeled me as a Christian gentleman. We exchanged letters for several years. I still have the letters in my files . In 1984, I wrote a letter to Rev. Tanimoto in which I informed him that Galla and I would be in Japan in September, 1984. I also informed him that I would be with a tour group visiting Hiroshima on Sunday, September 16, 1984. I named the hotel which was on the schedule for the Hiroshima tour. Unfortunately, in Hiroshima we ended up at another hotel for lunch. An exchange of letters with Rev. Tanimoto indicated that he had come to the hotel which I had mentioned and was disappointed that the tour group did not show up. I did write a letter of apology and that ended my correspondents with Rev. Tanimoto.
PHOTOGRAPHY As far back as I can recall, my interest in photography began at an early age when my parents gave me a Kodak Box Camera. As time passed my interest in photography increased and I considered it as an interesting art discipline. While at the Universityof California at Berkeley, Gabrielle Schoeberg, my friend Bert’s wife, let me use her Zeiss Super Ikonta B. Top features of this expensive camera ncluded a combined viewfinder/rangefinder, double exposure prevention, top mounted shutter release, and a mechanical film counter. The camera had an uncoated 80/2.8 Tessar lens and the Compur Rapid's top shutter speed was 1/400th of a second. Kodak 120 size film resulted in 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inch negatives. Using the Zeiss Super Ikonta B I tried to come with campus and San Francisco World Fair phiotographs that were more than casual snapshots. Once I graduated from the University of California at Berkeley, I no longer had the use of the camera that was beyond my financial capability to purchase.
I did have a camera with me during my stateside service in the Army of the United States. We were not allowed to carry a camera with us during the process of transferring from the States to an overseas destination. So my camera, whatever model it was, was packed away in my duffle bag along with clothing and personal items. Once on board the army transport ship our duffle bags were stowed beyond our reach. Once I was reconnected with my duffle bag in Finschaven, New Guinea, my camera was mising. Complaints did not bring it back. My cousin Norman sent me a Univex Mercury camera which used 35mm film. From photographers in an Air Corps unit I was able to get a can of 35mm movie film. I was able to cut some of the movie film and transfer it to a cartridge which could be inserted into the Univex Mercury camera. I was also able to get film developed by the Air Corps photography unit. Between the end of World War II and the year 1980, I had a variety of different cameras, but somehow I was not satisfied with a particular brand. On Saturday, July 5, 1980, both Jared and I each purchased an Olympus OM 10 SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera. The Olympus OM 10 was a 35mm focal plane shutter aperture priority AE SLR camera with an electronic shutter. Only aperture priority AE was available with the camera unless the optional manual exposure adapter was installed which allowed the setting of shutters speeds between 1 second and 1/1000 of a second (bulb mode was also available on the camera). The camera was equipped with a fixed pentaprism viewfinder which contained an LED exposure indicator. By purchasing the Olympus OM 10 camera and keeping an earlier Olympus Model 2s camera, I could now carry two cameras and insert lenses with different focal lengths into each one.
I usually carried one or two camera with me when I traveled by myself or with Galla. Galla suggested that on our travels all I did was view the sights through a camera lens. Jared offered Galla his Olympus OM 10 for one of our overseas trips. From this time on, Galla was hooked and joined me to pursue the hobby of photography. On July 22 1983 Galla purchased an Olympus OMG camera before our trip to China.
Purchases in the decade of the1980s included a Kodak Carousel Projector., a Da-Lite Projection Screen. I began to use 35mm film such as Kodachrome ASA 25 and Ektachrome ASA 400. Before leaving for our trip to China, on July 22, 1983, Galla purchased an Olympus OMG (a later version of the OM 10) for $198.64. For our upcoming trip our costor film was $243.86. Galla used print film at frst,but subsequently she also began to use 35mm slide film. For a good number of years we combined our hobby of photography with our travels.
In April 2010 the Atlanta Photographic Society (APS), Atlanta’s longest established photography club, celebrated its 40th anniversary. The club’s founder, Helene Mewborn, started the group, originally called the Alpine Camera Club, in 1970, a year after she opened her photo processing store, Alpine Photo Lodge, in Tucker, GA. The club began with about 12 members. The cub met twice a month for the full 40 years except during the summer months and over Christmas, sharing knowledge and competing. The group changed its name to Atlanta Photographic Society in 2000, to more accurately reflect its metro wide membership and scope of activities.
Jared had joined Alpine Camera Club and told us that it would be worthwhile for us to become members.. We did this some time in the middle of the 1980s. We learn a lot about photography from the members of the club. Members of the Alpine Camera Club included professional, amateur, and student photographers. The friendliness and the willingness to share information about ways to attain artful photographs rather than snapshots are memorable. The club had competitions and Galla and I won a fair number of awards in the slides category. We also did show travelogues after some of our trips. We have two award plaques on one of our book shelves and they are: the 1990 Ray Burgess award for the annual best travelog by Nate and Galla Radin and the Andres Kuhn annual 1996 award for photographs of children by Galla Radin. The award travelogue we presented was that of our travels in India (1989). The club had an interesting annual competition labeled A to Z. For this competition slide film with a particular ASA rating was selected and prepared so that only 26 photos could be taken. Competitors purchased this film at the club. A list of 26 topics was also given to each competitor along with the film. The topics began with a word that had A as the first letter, B as the second first letter of the word and so on until the last word had Z as the first letter. Thus, each competitor had to shoot a photograph in the alphabetical order of the topics on the list of words from A to Z. Each competitor returned the film cartridge to the club and all the film was then developed without the competitors saying the results until the night when the A to Z photos were shown at a club meeting and awards were given to those with the highest total ratings of the photos presented. It was at the beginning of the 1990s that Galla and I purchased a new cameras. I ended up with the Nikon camera models 6006 and 8008. I selected the autofocus (AF) Zoom Nikkor 28-85 mm/F 3.5-4.5 and 70-210 mm/F 4.0-5.6 lenses for the camera bodies. Galla got two Canon EOS camera bodies and AF Zoom 28-105mm/F3.5-4.5 and 100-300 mm/F 4.5-5/6 lenses. On our trips we both carried two cameras, zoom lenses, and various filters. As we grew older, the cameras seemed to become increasing heavier as we continued to travel extensively during the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. Galla and I eventually did not renew our membership as our traveling and photographic enthusiasm waned. At the beginning of the digital camera era, we were able to sell our film cameras at Showcase, a large photoraphy and media shop in Atlanta. We did purchase an Olympus digital camera and used it on the last of our travels on cruise liners.
TRAVEL After Jared and Rachel graduated from their respective universities and became self-sufficient, we found it be financially feasible to do some international travel. I found that I was not a very good traveler as I frequently had one mishap or another and quite often camedown with a resiratory infection. In spite of this handicap, we traveled a lot and friends back home always expected that I would be damaged goods on our return, if I eturned.
My attendance at AACC annual meetings at various cities throughout the United States was often combined with family vacations. There were always activities for children and spouses at the AACC annual meetings. In November of 1974, Galla and I took a 7-day Caribbean Sea.cruise on the Sitmar Fairsea. From October 23 to 30, 1976 we took a cruise on the NCL Southward to Cozumel, the Grand Cayman Island, and Ocha Rios, Jamaica. The is nothing really memorable about our fitrst cruise except that on the second cruise a dining table passenger was totally blind and he claimed to be the only blind traveling salesman.
August 17 to 23, 1974 Galla and I flew to Las Vegas to attend the AACC Annual Meeting. The registration fee was $17. Hotel space was still enough for the attendance and exhibitors. My recollection is that the meeting rooma and exhibits were on upper floors and above the floor for gambling games. We had some silver dollars, which were common out west. Inasmuch as silver dollars were not usually seen in the east, Galla went to lose them by playing roulette. As I understood it, Galla kept winning for a while, but eventually the silver dollars were lost.
October 6 to 27, 1977 We combined several days of relaxation at the Lake Barkley State Park Lodge, Kentucky, with attendance at the AACC SE Section Meeting, in New Orleans, Louisiana. As we used our sedan for this trip, at Lake Barkley State Park we were able to explore the Land of the Lakes area where dams enabled the creation of man made lakes.
From Wednesday, July 19 to Monday, August 7, 1978 Before my CDC assignment to visit Allergan Pharmaceuticals and then go on to the annual AACC meeting in San Francisco, Galla and I had decided to take annual leave to take advantage of a Delta airlines offer of unlimited milage and unlimited stops over a 20 day period. The cost of this offer was $322.92 each. After the assignment was made, I went to the CDC travel office where our original plans were discussed. I was informed that we should go ahead with our original plans. CDC would pay for my round trip to San Francisco and the cost of my round trip from San Francisco to Irvine, California, on a Californian domestic airline. After going to a Delta Airlines local office, arrangements were made for my round trip to San Francisco and my round trip to Irvine, I was surprised to find that CDC would get a credit for about eight dollars. Of course, we paid for the San Francisco-Irvine round trip for Galla. After the AACC annual meeting ended we flew to New York City via Atlanta. In Atlanta, we had a two-hour layover. After family visits in New York City we flew to Nassau in the Bahamas. After several days of relaxation, we flew to Boston so we could visit Rachel and William and then on the way back to Atlanta we made a stop in Washington DC.
Tuesday, August 7 to Wednesday, August 29, 1979 Our first truly international trip took place between Our travel arrangements for a trip to France and Switzerland were made by International Weekends. We flew to New York City where we had a chance to spend some time with Ruth and Sam. While waiting to board of chartered airliner at the JFK International Airport, we met other members of this travel group. I am sorry to say that we no longer have any written records of this trip and the names of some of the people in the travel group that we socialized with cannot be recalled. One of the men of the group came over to us and asked the usual traveler question which was where are you from. When I said Atlanta, I was told in no uncertain terms that it disliked the city very much. Eventually, the reason for disliking Atlanta was that this man’s daughter, who was a radiologist, along with several other radiologists, who were in Atlanta for a meeting, or accosted while taking a walk and one member of the group was killed. It also turns out that this man was the surgeon and he and his wife came from Ohio. We kept up a correspondence with the couple for several years after returning home. Another couple whom we befriended were from New Jersey and the man was a history professor at the Fairleigh Dickinson University. We also correspondence with them for many years after we came home.
After spending an uncomfortable night on the charter flight we landed at the Paris International Orly Airport. We were taken to a hotel in a northern Paris suburb. We were on our own for the next week or so. To do any sightseeing, Galla and I rapidly learned how to use the Metro, the Paris subway system. Speaking of the subway system, we learned very quickly to be aware of pickpockets. Riding on the subway train with the history professor and his wife, we were suddenly pushed by two men and a woman just as the door opened and a station stop. The trio got off the train at the station stop. The history professor reached into his pockets and found that his wallet and passport were missing. After reading an article in the travel section of the New York Times, I took the advice given and placed my wallet and passport in the inner pocket of my jacket and used a safety pin to prevent someone reaching into the pocket. This served me well that night and beyond.
We kept busy during our time in Paris. We managed to visit the Louvre, Musee de l'Orangerie in the Tuileries Gardens, the .musee Rodin , and Le Centre Pompidou, which is one of the most spectacular buildings of Paris. The 1977 factory style architecture of Le Centre Pompidou violently contrasted with the surrounding houses of Paris' oldest district near theNotre Dame Cathedral. Of course we visited the Notre Dame Cathedral. We visited Montmartre, which is a hill 130 meters high, giving its name to the surrounding district, in the north of Paris in the 18th arrondissement, a part of the Right Bank. Montmartre is primarily known for the white domed Basilica of the Sacré Cœur on its summit and as a nightclub district. The other, older, church on the hill is Saint Pierre de Montmartre, which claims to be the location at which the Jesuit order of priests was founded. Many artists had studios or worked around the community of Montmartre such as Salvador Dalí, Amedeo Modigliani, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent van Gogh. I still remember that Galla and I walked into a small Montmartre nondescript bar where we stopped to eat at dinnertime. I tried their potato omelette and it was so delicious that it remains lodged in my memory bank. On our own we took a train ride to visit the Versailles and Giverny, Monet’s home. On a Friday night, Galla and I found our way to attend services at the Union Libérale Israélite de France (ULIF), sometimes called the rue Copernic synagogue, a reformist Jewish synagogue. We did not understand the sermon, but theRabbi captivated us with his facial expressions andenthusiasm . After the servicesended we conversed with some members of the congregation who spoke English.
The Hôpital des Enfants Malades founded in 1802 on the Rue de Sévres in Paris was the first hospital especially established for the treatment of sick children. Having learned that the hospital was evaluating laboratory performance of French hospital laboratories with a proficiency testing program, I wrote a letter to the head of this program. In the letter I let the head of this program know that I was involved with proficiency testing at CDC and that we would be in Paris in August. I asked about the possibility of visiting the hospital laboratory and learning about their proficiency testing program. From the head of the program, I received an invitation to visit the laboratory. However, the head of the program would be on vacation in August, so I should see a Dr. Dumont. Well, Galla and I went to the left bank of Paris and from there we found the hospital. The hospital complex was large with many buildings. Using now fractured French, we found our way to the laboratory. At the laboratory, I asked someone where I could find Dr. Dumont. This person pointed to a woman at a desk and said that she spoke English fairly well. I asked the woman where I could find Dr. Dumont. She told me that there was no Dr. Dumont in the laboratory. I showed her a small notebook on which I pointed to the name Dr. Dumont and the time and date we were to meet. This woman looked at me and said that I was looking for Dr. Dum-o (French pronunciation). Dr. Dumont (or Dr. Dum-o) did not greet us warmly, however, I came away with an annual report of their proficiency testing program. After leaving the hospital we wandered around the Left Bank area and looked at the art that was on sale.
It was a bright sunny day late in the morning that Galla and I were walking toward the Eiffel Tower. We were walking on the sidewalk across the road from the Seine River. There seem to be no cars on the road and no people whom we could see. A black car being driven in the same direction
as we were suddenly came to a stop. The back window of the car was opened and I heard a man asking for something. I walked to the car about halfway down a long between the road and the sidewalk. The request coming from the man in the car was something about wanting to change francs for dollars. I noted that there were four dark- skinned men in this car. After I said I had no change, the rear door of the car open, a man stepped out and started walking toward me. I do not know if I ran or walked quickly to the sidewalk, but I do know that I grabbed Galla’s arm and said something like lets get the hell out of here, fast. The man who walked toward me got back into the car and the driver drove off. I will never know if the men in the car were going to try to rob us, or whatever, but I do know that I was elated when the car drove off.
The Eiffel Tower, located on the Champ de Mars, is 324 m (1,063 ft) high, about the same height as an 81 story building. The tower has three levels for visitors. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants. On reaching the Eiffiel Tower, after paying an entry fee, we took an elevator tothe second level where we had lunch. The view of Paris was spectacular.
After having a wonderful time in Paris, our group was transported to a French Alps ski resort, Les Arcs. Les Arcs is situated in the Tarentaise region of France in the French Alps, above Bourg St Maurice. It is located just to the south of the Aiguilles de Chamonix mountain chain, which peaks at the top of Mt Blanc. Le Arcs is a complex of hotels, chalets and appartments at altitudes ranging from 810 m (2657 fet) to 3225 m (10, 578 feet). We were pleased not only with the hotel room furnishings but with the spectacular view through our room picture window of the valley below and Mont Blanc. During the week, or so, of our time at Les Arcs, we did a lot of sightseeing in the area. In Chamonix, we boarded a cable car for the Aiguille du Midi. The first stage, a 9 minute run to the Plan des Aiguilles at an altitude of 2,263m (7,425 ft.), wasn't alarming., but I began to have momentary blackouts on the way to the second stage, which was to the Aiguille du Midi station at 3,781m (12,405 ft.), The altitude was a bit too much for me. We caught a cable car quickly at the upper station and the blackouts ceased at lower altitudes. In spite of the blackouts, the views of the Alps was incredible.
The enjoyable time at Les Arcs ended with our group being transported to Geneva, Switzerland. We had several days in Geneva and what remains in our memories is that of walking along the shore of Lake Geneva. We then boarded a charter flight that took us back to New York City.
Tuesday, September 22, to Friday, October 23, 1981 We arranged to take an Eastern Mediterrean Sea cruise with an American Express Travel Agency. The travel agent was a young man who seemed unsure of himself and somehow I did not care for him. Our arrangements included flight with Delta Airlines to LaGuardia Airport in New York City, then an Alitalia Airline flight to Rome, Italy, and return flights from the Pisa airport to Rome and then on to Boston. From Boston the return to Atlanta would be with Delta Airlines.
After several days in Rome, we I flew to Venice where we boarded the Karageorgis Lines 600-passenger ship, the Navarino. The ship made stops at the following places: Istanbul (Turkey); Katakolon (Greece); the port for Athens, Piraeus (Greece); the Greek Islands Mykonos, Rhodes, Crete (City of Heraklion), and Corfu; Haifa (Israel); Dubrovnik (Yugoslavia); and finally, back to Venice.
In Rome, a city filled with two millennia of history, we tried to visit many historic sites. We did getto see the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Pantheon., the Vatican, the locus of the Roman Catholic Church, the Sistine Chapel with its famously painted ceiling, the Spanish Steps, and the Trevi Fountain. After leaving Rome and boarding the Navarino, we took tours, or did sightseeing at port stops. At the port of Katakolon, at the western edge of Greece's Peloponnese Peninsula, the major attraction was the archeological site of Olympia, where the ancient Olympic Games were held. Otherwise, Katakolon itself was pretty much a one horse town with a big pier for docking cruise ships. After the ship docked in the port of Piraeus, we took a tour of the city of Athens. ns
The origins of the 3000 year old ancient city of Athens date back to the years when gods of myth walked the earth, a history reflected in popular destinations such as the Acropolis, the Olympieion (Temple of Olympian Zeus) and the Ancient Agora, where the temples of the gods Hephaestus and Apollo are also found.
The 3,000 year history of Athens and, indeed, ancient Greece is perusable on 'museum mile' along Vassilissis Sophias Avenue. Here most of Athens' museums are clustered, including the Benaki Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art and the Byzantine Museum. The 'mile' starts from Syntagma Square, the home of the Greek Parliament. Incidentally, Athens is widely considered to be the birthplace of democracy. The tour included not only the major historical sites but also a delicious lunch in a Greek restaurant across the road from the Acropolis. On the next day we went to Athens from Piraeus by ourselves. In Athens, we found our way to an American Express Travel Agency where we tried to confirm our airline reservations back to the States. We were told that our flight from Rome to Boston had been canceled and we would be taking a flight from Rome to New York City and then change to a flight to Boston. We were unhappy about this, especially after we were told that this American Express office had no responsibility to make any changes are flights that originated from the American Express office in Atlanta. How are visits to the Greek Islands met our expectations which were derived from tourist information and personal contacts with previous visitors to the islands. The next port for the Navarino was Haifa, Israel. A tour enabled us to spend a good part of a day in the old City of Jerusalem. Suffice to say that standing at the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) was for me one of the memorable sights of this tour. Our next stop was in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia. In Dubrovnik, we spent a good part of the day sightseeing in their old city. What is memorable to me is that on the functioning oldist pharmacy in Europe. We debarked from the ship in Venice, Italy.
The Bauer Grunwald Hotel is situated within a small square adjacent to San Marco Square. The luxurious hotel occupies an area with the back wall on the shore of the Grand Canal and the right wall (facing the front of the hotel) on the banks of the narrow San Moisè Canal. Our travel arrangements included one night in the Hotel Bauer Grunwald. We then had arranged for two extra nights in the hotel at a cost of $330.50. The room has assigned to us for our first night stay was far from luxurious. However, the room assigned to us for the extra two nights was indeed luxurious. Our room was on a corner of the hotel where we had views of the Grand canal and the San Moisè Canal. In the evenings we could hear music and even singing from the gondoliers congregated in the canal below our window. While on the cruise ship, we became acquainted with Aaron Mannis, M.D., and his wife. Dr. Mannis was a retired ophthalmologist who was battling multiple myeloma, a hematological malignancy, or a cancer of the bone, bone marrow, and lymph glands. He and his wife were planning to do some extensive travel in Europe. In Venice, they were staying in a hotel near the railroad station and we gather that the bathroom was in the hall outside of their room. Dr. Mannis, his wife, and another couple we met on a cruise ship, had dinner in Venice and they all went back to spend some time conversing in our hotel room. After Dr. Mannis used our bathroom, which indeed was luxurious, he suggested that his wife should also make use of the facility. She refused because it might make her regret about that facility in their hotel.
We walked a great deal in Venice and enjoyed the sights. There was an American Express office near the hotel. Galla spent some time with an American Express agent and tried to convince him to reroute our airline flights so we could travel directly from Europe to Boston. After much discussion, and Galla’s persistence, we were rerouted to fly from Pisa to Rome and onto Paris where we would stay in a hotel overnight and then catch a flight directly to Boston.
From Venice we traveled by train to Florence. In Florence, we had a hotel near the railroad station. We arrived in time for a strike by service hotel and restaurant people. On the first evening in Florence, we found a pizzeria restaurant that was open. The restaurant was crowded and we managed to end up in a booth. And elderly Italian gentleman came and sat opposite of us in the booth. He noticed that we were looking at the menu and trying to translate Italian into English with a dictionary. This man gently tucks a dictionary from us and began trying to find words for us to communicate. We noticed that he was looking at the part of the English -Italian section of the dictionary. We pointed to the Italian-English section of the dictionary. We were able to have a compensation by passing the dictionary back and forth. The strike was over next day. We got on a bus to take us across the Ponte Vecchio to visit the Pitti Palace. We couldn’t figure out how to pay the bus fare and somehow we got away with it. After spending some time at the Pitti Palace we walked across the Ponte Vecchio to the Uffizi Gallery, one of the oldest and most famous art museums of the Western world. While eating lunch in a café near the Uffizi Gallery we noticed that there was a science museum across the street. We decided to visit the museum and we would stay there for a very short time. This does not happen as we became very interested in the exhibits of the astronomical devices used by Galileo, the voltaic pile of Volta which was the first electric battery, and 19th century obstetrical instruments.
While riding in a bus from Florence to the Pisa airport, we had a distant view of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Although we probably had the time to visit the Tower, we were tired and somehow had no desire to do any more sightseeing. Before landing in Rome we were informed that a strike by baggage handlers meant that we had to find a way to get our luggage off the airliner. One of the passengers climbed into the luggage storage area on the airliner. As the airliner was parked on the tarmac, we carried our luggage onto a bus which took us to the airport terminal. We then checked our luggage for the flight to Paris. At the Orly Airport we were surprised that we were free to go to the Holiday Inn without passing through French passport control. The next morning we headed for the Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. Without much ado, we boarded an Air France airliner for the flight to Boston, and after visiting Rachel and William, we returned To Atlanta.
May 28 to June 6, 1982 Ruth and Sam, and Norman and Norma came to Atlanta to join us to go to the World Fair in Knoxville, Kentucky. Publicity for this fair suggested that it would be difficult to obtain lodgings unless reservations were made early in the year. The best I could do to reserve lodgings in January, was at a Vagabond Inn. Before we left for the fair we took our guests to Stone Mountain Park. Also before leaving, with Jared, Norman, and Sam we went shopping for a birthday gift for Galla. As an aside, when I did give Galla the birthday gift, it is returned for one reason or another. I believe also that that day, we men went to see the movie Star Trek. All six of us managed to squeeze into our station wagon and off we went to the fair. Sam, having been a driving instructor, did most of the driving on this trip. The first night at the Vagabond Inn was not a happy one. Suffice to say the Inn was a dive. During the next day we found that lodgings were available at better motels, so we initiated a transfer to more comfortable quarters. The Fair was not all it was cracked up to be, so one day of attendance was enough for us. On the way home to Atlanta we made some stops in Tennessee to do some sightseeing. All in all, it was a nice family affair. For a
Monday, July 5 to Saturday, July 24 1982 We took another overseas trip with International Weekends. At the time we arranged to take this Scandinavian Odyssey, we learned that the charter flight leaving from New York City JFK Airport, would stop in Boston on the way to, and back from, Europe. We flew to Boston and before leaving for Europe, we visited Rachel and William in Westborough. At the Boston Logan International Airport, my carry-on bag was hand-examined by a security guard. When the guard pulled out of a small bag from my carry-on, I exclaimed those are my drugs. The guard just put the medication bag back in the carry-on. The charter flight was late
to arrive in Boston. We learned from members of the group on the airliner that the air-conditioning was not working during the flight to Boston. It was also announced that there was some difficulty with one of the engines on the charter airliner. So, by about 10 PM that night, we were all put up at the Logan International Airport Hilton Hotel. We left the Boston airport the next afternoon. After an uncomfortable night on the airliner, we arrived in Copenhagen, Denmark. We were taken io the suburban Hotel Copenhagen. After taking a tour of Copenhagen, we were on our own. I do remember spending some time at the Tivoli Gardens. We also took some tours, but somehow the sights we observed have faded from our memories. Our next destination was Stockholm, Sweden. I think our group was on a bus which was transported to Sweden by a car ferry. We were again launched in the suburbs at the Grand Royale Hotel Stockholm, on the first evening, after dinner, we took a long walk with other members of the group to see where there was a subway station. On the way back to the hotel, while engaged in conversation with other members of the group, I happened to look at my watch and to my dismay I found it was 11 PM. It was then that we realized that we were in the land of the midnight sun. We did quite a bit of sightseeing and we visited the building where Nobel Prize winners walked. I also remember getting on a boat where we had dinner and watched the scenes and we passed by on the shore. Across the street from our hotel there was an Ikea store. We enjoyed looking around in Ikea long before this enterprise came to the United States. Our next destination was Oslo, Norway. There we stayed on top of a hill in the suburbs at the Grand Hotel Oslo. In Oslo we visited Vigelandsparken Sculpture Park, the Munch Museum, the Holmenkollen Ski Jump and the Kon Tiki Viking Ship Museum.
Our trip to Scandinavia ended back in Copenhagen. In Copenhagen, Galla and I looked at some furniture stores, and in one, we were intrigued by a sectional sofa. We were tempted to purchase it, but we made a wise there decision not to do so because of shipping expense and the possibility of regretting this decision because it was made when we were very tired at the end of the trip. We flew back to Boston and then on to Atlanta.
Thursday, October 07 to Sunday, October 09, 1982. We drove our sedan to attend the AACC SE Section meeting in Lexington, KY. On Friday night arrangements had been made for members attending the meeting to visit a horse farm and have dinner there. After the meeting ended on Saturday morning, we adjourned to spend the afternoon at a horse racing track. We put down all of a two dollar bet on a horse named Ancient Times. According to the odds for this horse it was very unlikely that we bet on a winner. However, we liked the name of the horse. I describe the results of the race by saying that Ancient Times is still running to finish the race. After leaving the race track we began the drive back to Atlanta.
Wednesday, June 15 to Sunday, June 19, 1983 Although it was inconvenient for us to leave Atlanta at this time, because of the death of Galla’s Aunt Selma we flew to New York City to attend her funeral. After the funeral we flew to Boston where we rented a car. After our visit with Rachel and William we flew back to Atlanta.
Saturday, August 20 to Thursday, September 15, 1983 In spite of some horror stories we heard about travel in China, we decided that we would like to see that country for ourselves. After our experience with an American Express travel agent, we contacted our neighbor, Helen Adams, who was a travel agent at the Osborne Travel Agency. We accepted Helen’s recommendation to use the Pacific Delight group as they were an experienced China ttravel organizatin. After studying an attractive Pacific Delight brochure, we selected a Yangtze River Cruise itinerary. We selected Northwest Airlines to for the flights toHong Kong, via Minneapolis, Seattle, and Tokyo. The cost for the airline flights was about $900.
A group of technologists from the Shanghai Institute of Biological Products was at CDC for an arranged training program. Perhaps the decision to go to China was due my involvement in this program. Chen Lan was a young Chinese technologist with whom I spent time discussing standards and quality control for the clinical laboratory. Sometime after we committed ourselves for this trip, Galla and I invited Chen Lan to have dinner with us at our home. Chen Lan apparetly was not adept at the use of the knife and fork, but she was a fast learner. At home, we told Chen Lan that we were going to China as tourists. The outcome of that information was that I reeived an invitation from a e were in Shanghai. I showed the invitation to the head of our CDC International Program Group. I was told that a formal acceptance of the invitation would have to go through the State department. However, I shoud have my secretary write a letter stating that I will be a tourist but I would be happy to stop and visit the Institute. Also, this letter should be written on government stationery. Two weeks before we left, I received aletter from Dr. Zhang in which he made a request for me to give a talk to clinical laboratory technologists from hospitals in the Shanghai area. Since a particular topic for the talk was not mentioned I took my set of slides for my lecture about preservation of biological materials. I called Myron Shultz, D.V.M, M.D., of the CDC quarantine group to ask about health precautions while in China. I was advised to go to the CDC Employees Medical Clinic to pick up an aid kit to bring with us. I was also advised to use a face mask and certain areas because of polluted air. I was also warned not to drink the tap water in China.
On Saturday, August 20, 1983, we left our house before 7 AM to start our journey on an early morning flight. Our flight was delayed for an hour because of a fuel valve problem. On the way to Minneapolis, we were informed that Northwest Flight 7 to Seattle and then to Tokyo was being held
because our flight was late. We learned later that 30 people who were on our flight would be transferring to Flight 7. Galla and I were the last passengers to arrive at the gate for our flight to Seattle as we had to go through security again and because of hand examination of our film. The outcome of being late was that we got seats in the first-class section of the airliner. Northwest
Flight 7 would be the airliner we were to board for Tokyo the next day. However, on the next day we would be back in the economy cabin. Helen Adams made a reservation for us in Seattle at the Hotel Warwick and it turned out to be a very pleasant stay. On Saturday night, we walked to the Seattle docks and had a nice salmon dinner. On the next morning, we walked around the old Seattle fairgrounds of 1962. The fairgrounds became an entertainment center and the space needle was still there. We took a taxi to the airport to catch our 2 PM flight to Tokyo and then to Hong Kong. At the airport we met the Pacific Delight tour director, Peggy Lau. Peggy Lau was a Chineese-American young woman from San Francisco and an experienced director of tours in China.
Our flight to Tokyo on a Boeing 747 was late to leave the Seattle airport . However, the 10 hour flight to Tokyo was smooth and without incident. Luckily, Galla had an aisle seat and I a window seat. The middle seat was vacant and this was helpful for us to get some sleep on the overnight flight. We arrived in Tokyo at 4 PM on Monday afternoon. In Tokyo we met other members of our
tour group. We boarded the same Boeing 747 for the flight to Hong Kong and again the flights left late. On arrival in Hong Kong at about 10 PM I had the sensation that the runway we were landing on was on a main street as through my seat window I saw a spectacular display of various colored
lights. It was hot, humid, and raining when we debarked from the airliner. By the time we got off the bus which took us to the hotel Shangri-La in Kowloon, there was lightning and thunder
and a heavy rainfall. Not only was the hotel spectacular, so was our room.
On Tuesday morning our tour group was briefed by Peggy Lau and introduced to a local guide, Angela. After the briefing, we headed for the Princeton Custom Tailors. Galla ordered an ultrasuede suite and I asked for an ultrasuede jacket. After we were measured for size we had lunch in a Chinese restaurant. Even though it was raining, hot, and humid we took a tour of Hong Kong. We took a cable car ride up to the Victoria Peak. On Wednesday, we went back to
the Princeton Custom Tailors where we had fittings of a cl clothing we ordered. Then we were off to the spectacular Ocean Terminal and Ocean Centre for some shopping. We also did some shopping at the Chinese Emporium. I was able to purchase an Olympus 35 to 105 Zuiko Zoom Lens for $143. That night we had a very good Western-style dinner at the Shangri-La Hotel.
On Thursday, after a hard time going through security at the Hong Kong airport, we flew to Guangzhou (Canton). After going through passport control we had to fill out a form in which
we declared our valuables such as the money we were carrying, any jewelry, and I believe in our case the value of our cameras and lenses. The officials seemed to be a friendly. A detailed description of our memorable trip to China would in itself result in a separate book which would include many, many photographs. Thus, some general observations are in order.
Once we passed through passport control in Guangzhou, we were joined by a Careers In Tourism (CIT) guide stayed with our group until we left China to return to Hong Kong. Although I do not remember the guide’s name, I do remember that she was a very personable Chinese young lady. I also remember that her husband was a biochemist. In every city we made stops at a local guide would join our tour group. Tourists at the time we went to China changed U.S. dollars for special friendship currency, not the current Chinese money. We could only purchase souvenirs in Friendship Stores and other commercial establishments which we visited during our tours. In general, all the hotels we stayed in while in China, the rooms were sparsely furnished but adequate and better than we had expected. In all the hotel rooms, there were always large Thermos containers filled with boiled water. Wherever our group dined, large platters of food were placed on turntables. Chicken was usually chopped into small pieces which included the bones. An entire fish was always on a platter. There were vegetables and always rice. Galla and I became adept with chopsticks but many members of our group preferred the usual knives and forks. Galla and I began to like Chinese food very much. Breakfasts were Western-style. When a time was set for breakfast, one had to be punctual. Late arrivals would have to eat their eggs cold as all the food was placed on the tables at the time set for breakfast. Knowing that tap water was off limits, we depended on the safety of boiled water in our rooms, hot tea, carbonated and non- carbonated bottled water. Cans of Coca-Cola were available and bottles of very sweet orange sodas were prevalent. I found that I liked Chinese beer. Galla did not like the orange soda or the beer and found a palatable drink by mixing the soda with beer. I, too, liked the soda-beer mixture.
Generally, within cities which we visited, our group was taken on area tours by bus. In this year of 1983, many of the roads on which we traveled outside of cities consisted of gravel. I observed people walking along the roads, two-wheeled carts loaded with products which were being pulled by a men, and rice paddies.. I also observed at times men with yokes and loaded pails hanging from the ends of yokes. The internal Chinese airline provided the means of transportation between some cities. However, I believe that it was an adventure when taking a flight. There were no safety precautions announcedas on U.S. and international airlines. On airliners, people stowed packages and suitcases in the aisles. On one flight, a man, perhaps from Mongolia, had his head on top of the back of our seat and he was trying to see us; we were curiosities. On another flight, a pilot came from the cockpit to use the restroom in back of the airliner, and when he came back to the door to the cockpit was locked. The pilot pounded on the door until finally before landing he was admitted to the cockpit. Several of us obsered that on one airliner there was no tread on the tires. All in all, we landed safely in each time we flew on the internal Chinese airline.
Some of the commercial places we visited in China included the following: a tea- growing farm in a tea- processing facility; a silkworm farm; a silk- production factory; an embroidery factory and we were impressed by not only the designs on cloth, but an embroidery on two sides of a large panel of cloth; a rug factory where we were tempted to buy a silk rug; a lacquer crafts factory; a cloissonet factory where they handmade lavishly decorated copper, kiln fired urns, pots, and plates; and of course Friendship Stores and sales emporiums.
From Guangzhou, where we entered China officially, we flew to Hangshou. Beside being taken on tours in the area, Galla and I were able to take a walk through the town square. When in a market with many booths we started to give out Atlanta Chamber of Commerce brochures. We were absolutely mobbed. After two nights in Hangshou, we traveled to Houzhou by bus. Our group boarded a boat for a 6-hour trip across Lake Tai Wu. We had a delicious chinese lunch served aboard the boat. On the lake we observed junks n the distance. When our group disembarked we were driven to Hotel Hubin in Wuxi. The lobby was overflowing with Japanese tourists. In this hotel, the bed was lumpy and uncomfortable. I took a walk in the Li Gardens before breakfast. After breakfast we visited a silk factory then proceeded to a dock where we boarded a boat for a three-hour ride on the Grand Canal. Here is where we observed contrasts between the new and the old. There were areas of industrialization and other areas which were rural. The boat traffic on the Grand Canal was heavy with barges and other craft. There were boats on which families lived. The boat we were on was not as nice as the one we were on yesterday. After disembarkation we were driven to the Suzhou Guest House. After lunch in the hotel dining room we climbed Tiger Hill. Tiger Hill is a large hillock about 118 feet in height. Although the hill is relatively small it has rich history. The highlight of this hill is the Tiger Hill Pagoda the pagoda, 158 feet high, has the distinction of being China's Leaning Tower. After stopping at a nearby tea house where we had some ice cream, we returned to the hotel. In Suzhou I wore a face mask to reduce the inspiration of dust particle. The next day, which was Monday, August 29, 1983, we boarded a fast European-like train for a one-and-a-half- hour ride to Shanghai. After we arrived in Shanhai, We were taken to the Shanhai Mansions Hotel and assigned room 414. This was by far the best hotel we stayed in despite the mildew odors in the closets, dripping faucets, the usual dim lighting, and outside traffic noise, especially car horns. Looking out of our room windows, we saw a river and a bridge to what appeared to be the city center.
When we arrived in Shanghai the local guide called Dr. Zhang at the Institute of Biological Products to inform him that I was now in Shanghai. The results of this telephone call was that Dr. Zhang came to our room after dinner. Dr. Zhang spoke English fairly well and they told us that he learned a language from missionaries. He earned a Ph.D. degree in the field of physical chemistry in a Chinese University. I was told that about 50 hospital chemistry laboratory technologists would be present for my presentation. Dr. Zhang went on to say that the Institute sent standards solutions for clinical chemistry tests to about 10,000 laboratories. One of the problems was that the laboratories did not trust these standards solutions, so each laboratory went its own way. Therefore, clinical
laboratory test performance variation among laboratories was unsatisfactory. I was then asked to talk about standards and standardization not laboratory performance. After I told Dr. Zhang that I brought slides for a talk on the preservation of biological materials we decided that I would be essentially giving two lectures. For the next hour or so Dr. Zhang told about the need for information from current clinical chemistry textbooks and journals. We were told about the cultural revolution and Dr. Zhang said he was lucky in that he was a given a job to distill water while some of his colleagues had to work in the rice paddies and mines. On Tuesday morning, I was taken to the Institute in a car. Dr. Zhang and I sat in the backseat while the driver had rock ‘n roll going either on tape or from a car radio. On arrival at the Institute, there was a bulletin board outside of the building on which there was an announcement of my upcoming lecture and there was a photograph of myself. I presented Dr. Zhang a book on quality control. I was given a tour of the laboratory facilities. In this year of 1983, and laboratory instrumentation was not as sophisticated as I expect that it is today. During the tour, I found that the blood bank was being run by a Japanese technologist; the blood bank was being run under a contract with a Japanese company. I was taken back to the hotel for lunch and picked up again for my afternoon seminar. I was introduced to a young lady who would be my translator. I noticed that when I gave a long sentence, at times there was a short Chinese sentence and at times with a short sentence it was a long Chinese sentence. During my lectures I would occasionally take a sip of tea that was on the table in front of me. What I did not notice was that my cup of tea was being refilled. Around the third hour of my talks, I felt that I needed a men’s restroom. I asked a translator to ask the audience if they wanted to take a break and so was no. They were really hungry for knowledge. I gritted my teeth and carried on. Finally, I had a question-and-answer period . Some questions I can answer and some I couldn’t . I promised to answer those unanswered questions by letter after I returned to the CDC. About four hours after I began to talk the session ended and I was taken to a men’s restroom. I was presented with a Chinese art book. r. Zhang kept me company on my return to the hotel and he waited until our tour group returned before leaving. This day was highlight for my trip to China. On my return to the CDC I found that Dr. Zhang had written a complimentary letter for my personnel record.
While I was at the Institute, Galla stayed wirth our group for tours in the Shanghai area. During the morning a housing project was visited where children in a kindergarten performed, a neighborhood representative addressed the group and took them into her apartment for tea, and acupuncture was demonstrated. The group came back to the hotel for lunch and I joined them until I was picked up again to give my talk at the Institute. The group also took tours during the afternoon. On Wednesday August 31, 1983, in the morning, Galla and I walked around the city streets on the other side of the bridge. We noticed men doing tai chi exercises. We were aware of large numbers of people and in particular we saw buses jammed with people. In the afternoon after some tours we took a 2 ½ hour flight to Xian.
We stayed in the Xian Grand House Hotel. That evening we went to the theater. The show was slow to start and when it did, the electricity went out. Afterstaying in our seats for a while there was announcement that the electricity was out citywide. A thunder storm with heavy rain which flooded the streets struck the city. We were the last to leave the theater to be driven back to the hotel. By the time we came back to the hotel electricity had been restored. The next day was bright and sunny, however the air was polluted with dust so again, I wore a filter face mask. Early in the morning we boarded a bus for a ride to the Terra-Cotta Museum. While aboard the bus a guide gave lengthy talk on the history of Xian. As one of the oldest cities in Chinese history, Xian is one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China because it has been the capital (under various names) of some of the most important dynasties in Chinese history, including the Zhou, Qin, Han, the Sui, and Tang dynasties. Xi'an is the eastern terminus of the Silk Road and home of the Terracotta Army which was made during the Qin Dynasty. The city has more than 3,100 years of history. We were not allowed to take photographs of the restored tera-cotta soldiers in the excavation site so we bought slides in the usual gift shop. The tera-cotta soldier sculptures were absolutely fascinating. Outside of the museum we purchased two vests. Although we visited other attractions after leaving the Terra-Cotta Museum, the two which were of real interest were the Hua Qing Palace site famous for hot spring pools and theNeolithic Museum. It was at the the Hua Qing Palace that in 1936 Chiang Kai Shek was betrayed to the communists but managed to evade capture by escaping to the surrounding mountains. The Banpo Neolithic Village Museum housed the remains of a 6,000 year old village once home to a matriarchal clan community.
On Friday, September 2, 1983 our group headed for Chongqing, a major city in central western China. We boarded our bus at 6:20 AM to catch an early flight to Chongqing. At the airport, we were given box lunches for breakfast. We had to wait quite a while for our flight because the airliner was late in arriving at the Xian airport. In Chongqing and after visiting a lacquerware factory we checked into the Rennen Hotel (Peoples Hotel). In this hotel we found that the bathroom was well lit but in the bedroom the lights couldn’t be turned on and an attempted repair failed. After lunch at a restaurant, Galla and I took a walk down the street even though it was very hot. We had our first glimpse of the Yangtze River. Winding about 3,964 miles, Yangtze River is the largest river in China and the third largest in the world after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America. Originating from the Tanggula Range in Qinghai Province in western China, the Yangtze River traverses eleven provinces and cities from west to east, including Qinghai, Tibet, Sichuan, Yunnan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu and Shanghai. Finally it pours into the East China Sea at Shanghai. I also remember a large red brickbuilding with many near the Yangtze River. I assumed it was an apartment building as there were many antennas on the roof. We also observed what appeared to be apartment buildings with stores on the street level. People on the street did not seem friendly, however, we attracted a crowd of children to whom we handed candy and brochures. Galla went on a tour in the afternoon while I took a nap. While on the tour to the Chongqing Municipal Museum, Galla left the group to take photographs. On the next day the group was taken on a tour of this hilly city. At the top of a hill we observed a marker that indicated the height of the Yangtze River in 1981 and that was between 50 and 100 feet. We stopped at the zoo where we saw the main attraction, pandas. We then went to the Sichuan Fine Arts Academy where we observed some very good work by the students. It was on Saturday, September 3, 1983, late in the afternoon, we left the hotel and made a stop for one hour in center of the city. Galla and I separated to take photos. At the time we were supposed to get back on the bus, Galla was not to be seen. I went hunting for her and met her on the way to the bus. She told the group that she had been surrounded by young Chinese people and that one young man spoke English. This man liked Galla’s camera and then asked her if she saw the movie E.T. and the Sound of Music. He then asked Galla to sing, which she did not do. Galla then got serenaded with John Brown’s Body. Finally, the young man tried to teach Galla three Chinese phrases. Galla then realized that she had to get back to the bus. We were then taken to the embarkation point where
we descended to the river bank by a cable car. After a walk on a rocky shore we boarded the ship, the MV Three Gorges. Galla and I were assigned Cabin 309. The cabin was small. It had two single beds, each against the side walls of the cabin. There was a large picture window which enabled us to get good views as we cruised downstream. We also had a small bathroom with the shower. The movie Kung Fu were shown on the TV set in our cabin.
On Sunday, September 4, breakfast was at 7:30 AM. After breakfast Galla and I went upon deck
and took photographs as the ship cast off for our Yangtze River voyage. At 9:30 AM, our group and another small group gathered in the lounge where we were introduced to the ship’s staff. We spent most of the day outside on the deck shooting photos. Late in the afternoon, in the lounge, we attended a Chinese language lesson. At 7 PM, we were treated to a Chinese banquet. Galla and Isad at different tables. Some of the ships staff sat at each table with the passengers. A printed menu showed 40 courses. Although I was finicky about some of the food, I found that in spite of the named courses, the meal was delicious.
Until we disembarked from the ship in Wuhan on Friday,September 9, we had passed or made stops at the following communities along the river: Shibaozhai, Wanxian, Yangtze Gorges, Yichang, Shashi, Chenglingji, andYueyang. It was usual for the ship to dock before dark as it did not cruise
during the night. We also learned that there was a traffic control system along the Yangtze River. When the ship made a stop at some community, we usually were guided to some interesting destination, be it a museum or a factory. It was also the usual for Galla and myself to wander off to shoot photographs. On Tuesday, September 6, we passed the the Qutang Gorge, Wuxia Gorge and Xiling Gorge, collectively known as the Sanxia, or the Three Gorges. There are many myths and legends about the gorges. The river narrowed and the current was rapid. It was also windy as we passed through th gorges. I stood on the back deck to take photos. It was later in the day that we came to the locks of the Gezhouba Dam. At the east end of the Three Gorges the Yangtze River flowing through the Nanjin Pass widens abruptly from 0.2 mile to about 1.2 miles. The water becomes calm and gentle. Two small islands, Gezhouba and Xiba, divide the river into three channels. The Gezhouba Dam or Gezhouba Water Control Project on the Yangtze River is located in the western suburbs of Yichang City in central China's Hubei province. The dam is 8,514 ft long with a maximum height of 154 ft. Construction started on December 30, 1970 and ended on December 10, 1988.
Many Chinese people stood on the sides of the locks to watch our ship descend. Once the ship pulled away from the locks we had a full view of this massive structure with its many spillways and the still ongoing construction at one end. After docking in Yichang we were taken to see a model of the dam. We had a recorded short lecture about the project where it was emphasized that that this project was designed and constructed by the Chinese without outside help. Then we went on the construction site, and indeed, the view was very impressive. The day ended with dinner at a restaurant and a ten act show of dancers, singers, and music. This Tuesday was a day of spectacular sights. The rest of the cruise was a continuation of stops, factory visits , an occasional pagoda, museums and people crowding around us as we strolled to take photos. One incident in Shashi does come to mind. One of the couples in our small group were Mitzi and Ray. Ray, a former patent attorney, had Parkinson’s Disease. Unexpectedly, it had gotten much worse on this trip and he was non-communicative. In Shashi, after a long walk with Ray to a primitive Men’s Room, Ray defecated into his underwear pants. It really was pathetic as Ray just stood still and seemed very bewildered. I helped him discard his underwear pants and I did the best I could to clean him as this facility had very little resources. I was able to coax Ray to walk back to the bus where I told Mitzi about the incident. The guides were able to arrange transportation for Mitzi and ray back to the ship.
Disembarkation in Wuhan from the MV Three Gorges took place early on Friday, September 9. Both Galla and I had not been feeling chipper the last few days since we had colds. We visited in a primary school where the students performed for us. Our overnight stay at a hotel was quite uncomfortable. Early on Saturday morning, September 10, joined members of our group to visit the Temple of Original Purity. At 2 PM, we boarded a flight to Beijing. The airport seemed new and modern with its moving sidewalks and escalators. We were taken to the Jianguo Hotel. This hotel was similar to a Holiday Inn in Stanford, California. It was the Chinese-American builder of the California Holiday Inn who in a joint venture with China was responsible for constructing the Jianguo Hotel. The Cafe, was an all day dining restaurant featuring western and Asian specialties.
On our room was nice, comfortable, and had the amenities expected in any American hotel.
On ride from the airport we observed tall apartment buildings, new construction sites, wide streets
and lots of car traffic. Although my cold worsened, I joined our group on Sunday morning, September 11, to visit the Summer Palace. The Summer Palace started construction in the 1100's and continued throughout the centuries. The emperors and empresses used it as their summer retreat. The Summer Palace is mainly dominated by Longevity Hill (about 200 ft thigh) and the Kunming Lake. It had a variety of palaces, gardens, and other classical style architectural structures. We took a boat ride on the lake and shot many photos. At the end of the boat ride I felt feverish and I was able to arrange my return to the hotel. While I was gone, Galla did climb Longevity Hill. At the hotel in a staff member, a young Chinese man, took me up to a medical clinic on the second floor. As an aside, this young man made a remark which was
in effect that people can get along but politicians make life difficult. The staff member acted as a translator for the Chinese- speaking physician. After my blood pressure was taken, which I suspect was high, and the physician said not bad for an old man. I did have a low fever. I was given the antibiotic tetracycline, aspirin, and cough medicine. The physician then gave me a bottle off pills and told me that these pills were better than the other medicines I was given. Galla and I had dinner
in the hotel café where I had some soup and a wonderful Western hamburger. Neither Galla or I were feeling well. Being desperate to go to the Great Wall next day, I took one of the pills of the Chinese preparation. By the end of the meal with the Café, I suddenly became groggy. I fell asleep very quickly when we came to our room. Surprisingly, next morning I felt pretty good; perhaps that was due to a night of sound sleep. Galla had some digestive problems which disappeared on the morning of Monday, September 12. The day was spent with visits to the Ming Tomb and the Great Wall. At the Ming Tomb complex we descended on 95 stairs to view the burial site of Ming Dynasty emperors. The Ming Dynasty had 13 emporers who reigned from 1368 1644. All 13 emperors are buried in this vast section of the countryside. Once on ground-level we walked by 18 pairs of stone statues of mythical animals. The Great Wall of China (about 3,700 miles long) is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in northern China, built originally to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire against intrusions by various nomadic groups. Atthe Great Wall we ascended some stairs which enabled us to take a walk along the top of this spectacular structure. It was a bit surprising how steep the portion of the wall was on our way to the first guard tower. On our return to the hotel, after dinner, our group went to the theater.
On Tuesday, September 13, we joined a group to go to the Forbidden City. Once we arrived at Tiananmen Square, Galla and I left our group. We walked around the Square taking photos. While aiming my camera ar a huge photo of Mao Zedong on the entry wall to the Forbidden City, a young Chinese man came to speak to us. He told us that he worked at the YMCA and he was taking
photographs to submit them to a newspaper in a competition for a job as a photographer. They asked us if he could take our photograph. We told them to go ahead and while he was photographing us, I took a photograph of him. We exchanged addresses, and indeed, we received a letter from this young man who along with a photograph of us on Tiananmen Square. In this letter, he requested sponsorship from us to enable him to come to the United States. We rode a letter and the photograph that we took of him. We also pointed out that it would not be possible for us to sponsor a trip to the United States. Galla and I entered the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. Built in 1406 to 1420, the complex consists of 980 buildings. Since 1925, the Forbidden City has been under the charge of the Palace Museum. We wandered around the premises and took many photos. After leaving the Forbidden City we walked around in a department store. John Krickel, at CDC, had authorized me to purchase a Chinese Seagull camera. It was supposed to be a very good camera we examined carefully at a photographic supply counter. I did not purchase the camera because
we could not communicate with the salesperson to language differences. After leaving the department store we went to the Peking Hotel where we had lunch. We then ended up sharing a taxi to our hotel with a Japanese man and his very pretty young daughter. The man insisted on paying the taxi fare. That night, we all went to a restaurant for a Mongolian Hot-Pot amd Peking duck dinner. This essentially was the farewell dinner for our group before leaving for Hong Kong.
On Wednesday, September 14, we went back to the Beijing Airport and flew to Hong Kong. We returned to the Shangri-La Hotel for the night. Once assigned to our room, we visited the Princeton Tailors. I tried on my ultrasuede jacket and Galla her ultrasuede suit. After we tried on our clothes, the Princeton tailors had some final adjustments to make. We were told that the clothing would be at the hotel by the time we woke up in the morning our clothes would be at the hotel. This did occur. The cost of the clothing was $400, a good buy at that time. When we tried the clothing on at home in Atlanta, Galla’s suit jacket had one sleeve shorter than the other. It is probable that this error occurred at the time of the final adjustments.
On Thursday, September 12, 1983, we boarded a Northwest airliner to return home. During this long flight, we were able to sit back and think about our time in China. After hearing some horror stories about travel in China from people who went there before us, we expected the worst. However, this trip was above our expectations. Memories still persist of children’s swimming in the brackish water of the Yangtze River, of people washing clothes and pots and pans in unclean waterways, spectacular sights, my lecture and visit to the Institute of Biological Products in Shanghai, and Dr. Zhang talking about the need for technical books and journals. On our return to Atlanta, while the trip was fresh in our memories, I put together a slide show and Galla assembled her photographs in an album. It was not long before we presented our show at the home of Tom Layfield, Chief Engineer at CDC. Tom had assembled a small group of CDC acquaintances and we had a favorable response to our presentation. That was the first of many presentations that ensued. The cost of our trip was about $12,000
Sunday, August 26 to Thursday, September 20, 1984 Our neighbor, Travel Agent Helen Adams arranged our next major trip which was a cruise on the ship MS Sagafjord from Los Angeles to Japan. The MS Sagafjord was built in 1965 by the Société Nouvelle des Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée for the Norwegian America Line. Between 1983 and 1996 the Sagafjord was operated by Cunard Line. The capacity of the ship was about 600 passengers and had a crew of 350 individuals. On Sunday, August 26, or Eastern airliner flight to Los Angeles was late in leaving because of a malfunctioning instrument. On arrival at the Los Angeles International Airport we were met by a Cunard Line representative who guided us to a bus for transportation to the Port
of Los Angeles in San Pedro. Soon after we boarded, we went out on deck to listen to the band playing as we cast off. In the dining rom we talked to a steward about a low-fat diet for me and he was very accomadating. They would give me the lunch and dinner menus each morning and I could indicate my choices in advance of each meal.
On Monday, August 27, tied up at a pier at the Port of San Francisco. Although we were at the port from 2 to 6 PM, there was time for our friends Mickey and Justin Shapiro to come aboard for a short visit. The next day we were at sea, and as usual, there was much that we could do aboard a cruise ship. We took advantage of duplicate bridge playing, going to movies, going to afternoon tea where we could socialize with other passengers, seeing musical shows, other entertainment presentations, and occasionally went to the 11 PM midnight buffet.
On Monday, August 29, in the morning, we met a fellow passenger, Elliott Mackle. Elliott Mackle was a known Atlanta free-lance writer, and in particular, he was known for his restaurant critiques which appeared in local newspapers. On a number of occasions we chatted with Elliott Mackle at about good nutrition of which he was quite knowledgeable. From one to 11 PM, we were tied up at the Port of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We took a ship’s three-hour tour to see some of the attractions in Vancouver. We observed a number of totem poles at a museummuseum of British Columbia Coastal Indian culture, visited Queen Elizabeth Park, Stanley Park, and the Bloedel Conservatory. On the next day, we were at sea and passed through the Canadian Inland Passage. On Friday, August 31, at 9 AM we docked at Ketchikan, Alaska. A ship’s tour during the morning hours took us to the Deer Mountain Tribal Hatchery and Eagle Center which is an educational look at Alaska’s salmon hatchery program. Next we visited the Totem Heritage Center with its collection of 19th century totem poles. After a walk in a rain forest we returned to the ship for lunch. We spent part of the afternoon walking around in the city. The population of the Ketchikan Metropolitan Area was about 12,000 inhabitants. Although wages were high and so was lodging. The rent for a two -bedroom apartment for $700 per month. We also visited a salmon cannery and a pulp and paper factory. One of the highlights of our walk was a side of Dolly’s House at 24 Creek Street. Dolly's House, a bordello in the former red-ight district of Ketchikan was now a museum. On the Cruise Ship Dock there is a 20 foot tall Liquid Sunshine Gauge. Ketchikan is one of the wettest places in North America where the total rainfall tops with 15 feet per year.
As the MS Sagafjord cruised in a northwesterly direction, it became increasingly cold. There were days when the sea was quite choppy. Saturday, September 1, it was rainy and foggy as we cruised through the Alaska inland passage. Once we left the inland passage the ship turned west and we arrived at Kodiak on Monday, September 3. The City of Kodiak is situated on the second largest island in the United States, approximately 250 air miles southwest of Anchorage in the Gulf of Alaska. We were taken into the city in a school bus and even though it was Labor Day the townspeople kept their stores often for the cruise ship passengers. We called Peggy Fitton who was
Tom Layfield’s daughter. Peggy, Jim, a Coast Guardsman, and their 10-month-old daughter came and picked us up in a Jeep. They drove to the top of a mountain and we looked down on the entire island of Kodiak. It was a crisp, sunny day, which we were told was unusual. Jim told us that he was part of a flight crew which was up in the air for many hours to observe any unusual activities at our borders. We had a pleasant visit with Jim and Peggy. On our return home, we gave Tom Layfield some of the photos we took of his daughter and family. Before we parted at the dock where gave Jim and Peggy a bottle of champagne. On Tuesday, September 4, it was cloudy and very cold. In the afternoon it rained. As we came into the Dutch Harbor area at about 5 PM the Captain decided that the sea was too rough to tie up at a dock. Wind gusts reached 50 mph. On Wednesday, wave heights reached 22 feet. Galla and I had to take Dramamine as we had a touch of seasickness. Both of us slept most of the day. We went up to the dining room the pitching of the ship was so bad at times that we had to hang on to our utensils and dishes with our food. On Thursday, we had to resort to Dramamine again and we slept most of the day. That evening the wave heights had subsided to about 15 feet so before dinner we managed to go to the Captain’s Quarters where we had been invited for cocktails. Once we got up to the Captain’s Quarters, we managed to find seats as it was difficult to stand and socialize. We were not the only passengers up there who needed to be seated. There was no Friday, September 7 as we crossed the International Dateline. The very rough seas continued until we reached Hakodate, Japan. Neither Galla nor I felt very well during the crossing of the Bering Sea from the Gulf of Alaska to Hakodate. In Hakodate, Tuesday, September 11, after passing through Japanese Immigration inspection, we took a ship’s
tour of Hakodate. Hakodate, the capital city of the Oshima Subprefecture, is located on the northernmost Japaneses island, Hokkaid?. The island is home to the Ainu, the indigenous people or groups in Japan and Russia. On the tour we were taken to see the star-shaped Goryokaku Fort which was built in the center of the city in1864. Then we got a view of the city from the top of Mount Hakodate (1100 Ft High). All in all, this was a very uninteresting tour.
On Thursday, September 13, we disembarked from the MS Sagafjord in Yokahama. About an hours ride on a bus through lots of traffic brought us to a large hotel in Tokyo. There we were left in the lobby with our luggage and the ship passengers that were on the bus all disappeared. Whilel trying to decide what to do and English-speaking Japanese hotel staff member came to us and asked if we needed help. After we told them we need to get to the Keio Plaza Hotel, the staff member took us to a taxi and told the driver where we were going. Located in Shinjuku, in the very heart of the Tokyo metropolis, the high-rise, luxurious Keio Plaza Hotel Tokyo with 1,436 guest rooms was a world class hotel. After registering and dropping our luggage in a very nice room, we hurried back to the lobby where we arranged to join a tour of Tokyo. I believe we missed having lunch to be able to take the tour which began a bit after the noon hour. The attractions on this tour were the Imperial Palace, the official residence of the Emperor and Empress of Japan since Tokyo became the political and imperial capital in 1868, the Buddhist Asakusa Kannon Temple, and a cruise on the Sumida River. Then we went to a place where pearls were being sold. Before demonstrations of the pearls, we were treated to a tea ceremony. Back at the hotel we had a message of a change in our itinerary.
Helen Adams had arranged a tour itinerary for us from Saturday, September 15 to Friday, September 20. On Friday, September 14, we had planned to spend the day wandering around in Tokyo. We had studied the subway system and we felt we could cope with it. However, the message we received from the tour company deprived us of looking around in Tokyo. Because Saturday, September 15, was the National Grandparents Day holiday traffic around Tokyo
and its environs would be happy. Therefore, the change in our itinerary was that instead of going on a Mount Fuji and Hakone tour and proceeding to Kyoto on Saturday, we would go on a Mount Fuji and Hakone tour on Friday and go to Kyoto directly on Saturday. On Friday, a guide met us in the lobby of the hotel exactly at the time specified in our message on Thursday. The nearly perfectly cone-shaped volcano Mount Fuji is 12,388.45 feet high. The last eruption was in r 1707. When we reached the mountain it is raining and cold. Even though the mountain was enclosed by a fog the bus that we were in ascended to park near a gift shop. Of course, we were disappointed. Hakone is part of the Fuji Hakone Izu National Park, which is famous for hot springs, outdoor activities, natural beauty and the view of nearby Mout Fuji. We had lunch in Hakone ata hotel, visited a Shinto Shrine, and got a very nice view of Mount Fuji in the afternoon before leaving for Tokyo.
A pretty Japanese young lady met us in the hotel lobby at exactlythe specified time Saturday morning. She was a guide and she escorted us to a limousine. We rode to a large railroad station and the guide waited with us until a bullet train arrived for our ride to Kyoto. While waiting for the train we got to know something about the life of the young lady. Back in Atlanta, we received
photos of the guide in Western dress and a Japanese Kimono. Our letter and photos of ourselves in the guide must of been sent by us at the same time she sent hers. On the station platform, there were markings where the train car doors would open. The needle nosed bullet train can reach a speed of 170 mph. It took less than two hours for the approximately 300 miles from Tokyo to Kyoto. Kyoto is a city in the central part of the island of Honsh?, Japan. It is a city of many temples and shrines. It was raining on Saturday. Ahe guide met us at the station in Kyoto and escorted us to the Miyako Hotel which was near the railroad station. According to our request we were assigned a Japanese-style room. The room had simple and traditional Japanese décor with light woods, shoji screens, Japanese art, a low square table with seating cushions on the floor. The bed consisted of a futon on the floor. The bathroom was really western except for a sunken-wooden-hot tub.
After a very good night of sleep,I arose earlier than Galla and left for a tour of Hiroshima. My recollection of the size of the tour group isn’t consisted of about five other individuals. The bullet train took only about two hours from Kyoto to Hiroshima. Riding in a bus, I was struck by the greenery and the buildings in this once destroyed city. We had lunch in a hotel. Unfortunately, I was not the hotel that was listed in the tour brochure. I had written to Reverend Tanimoto about where we were supposed to have lunch. When we came home to Atlanta, we found a letter from Reverend Tanimoto in which he let us know that he tried to find the tour group. I sent him my regrets. Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is in the center of Hiroshima, Japan. The park was built on anopen field that was created by the atomic bomb explosion. There are a number of memorials and monuments, museums, and lecture halls in the park. The purpose of the Peace Memorial Park is to not only memorialize the victims, but also to establish the memory of nuclear horrors and advocate world peace. Near the center of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is a concrete, saddle shaped monument that covers a cenotaph (a monument erected in honor of a dead person whose remains lie elsewhere).holding the names of all of the people killed by the bomb. The cenotaph carries the epitaph, "Rest in Peace, for the error shall not be repeated." Through the monument you can see the Peace Flame and the A Bomb Dome. The Atomic Bomb Dome ("Gembaku Domu" in Japanese) is oh a bank of the the Aioi river. The building's original name was the Industrial Promotion Hall, and it was considerably larger than the remains left after the explosion. It is one of the few buildings left standing within a one and a quarter mile radius of the explosion. It is remarkable that anything of the building survived at all, because it's estimated that the shock wave from the bomb created a pressure of 35 tons per square meter (1 meter = 3.3 ft) at the hypocenter. On the way back to Kyoto in the bullet train, I sat back and contemplated the results of my visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. As an ex-GI who served in the Pacific Theater during World War II, the visit to the museum and the cenotaph aevoked mixed feelings again. I appreciated that the destructive power of the atomic bombs ended World War II before many GI lives were lost in an invassion of Japan. On the other hand, the destructive power of nuclear devices were of concern as if they were used again, a good part of our known civilization could be destroyed, if not annihilated.
On my arrival at the hotel, Galla was still out on her tour of Kyoto and Nara. When I asked for the key to our room, I found that Galla had requested a change to a Western-style room. Later, Galla’s reason for the change was that she had a hard time getting up from the futon. I also learned that Galla taken no photographs as the batteries of her camera failed. It so happens, and I was the one
On Monday, September 17, a young Chinese couple, from Taiwan, joined us to continue our tour. From Kyoto we went to Toba. At first, we made a stop at the Japan's most sacred Shinto shrine Ise Jingu Geku Shrine located on the Kii Peninsula, on the south east coast of Mie Prefecture. Then we headed for Mikimoto Pearl Island , the home of the Pearl Museum, the Kokichi Mikimoto Memorial Hall and Pearl Plaza with its shops and restaurants as well as the site from which to watch pearl divers at work. After leaving Toba, we met a guide in Osaka. While at dinner with the Chinese couple we learned that the man was an attorney with an international practice in the field of art and his wife had a boutique in Taiwan. On our return to Atlanta we exchanged letters and photos. After a long day we were back in Tokyo at the Keio Plaza Hotel.
On Tuesday, our scheduled tour took us train to Nikko. We met our guide, Sonoko. We were taken to Mashiko. In Mashiko we spent time looking at pottery and art. That night we stayed at the very nice Hotel Nikko Kangya. During the night we were awakened by a weird noise and our bed was shaking due to an earthquake. On Wednesday we returned to the Keio Plaza Hotel. On Thursday, September 20, we walked around the hotel area in the morning and headed for the Narita Airport in the afternoon. So ended our cruise vacation.
Friday, April 26 to Sunday, May 26, 1985 The Elderhostel organization, in Boston, provides world-wide educational opportunities for the elderly. Looking at an Elderhostel catalog, in 1985, we decided to take advantage of one of their programs in Israel. The cost for the Israel Elderhostel was $3740. This included several days in Egypt. The overseas and side trip to Westboro airlines cost was $2488,85. We flew to the New York La Guardia Airport on Friday, April 26. We spent the night at Ruth and Sam’s house. Pam Kalish, Harvey’s daughter, was visiting her grandparents. Dinner that night included Arthur, Norma, and their children Spencer and Bonnie.
Early next evening Sam and Ruth drove us to the JFK International Terminal. An armed Israeli was thorough. The airline examiners made us open our luggage for hand-inspection. We insisted on having our cameras and film hand-examined. I was told to point the camera at the floor and press the shutter switch, which I did. We boarded a Boeing 747 and the flight left JFK on time at 11:30 PM, or 7:30 AM Israeli time (8 hour difference). Like most overnight flights taken previously, or in the future, we were shown movies which we could barely see or hear the dialogue through the earphones provided, we got very little sleep. Dinner was served soon after takeoff and breakfast
at 3:30 PM Israeli time lox, bagels and cream cheese. Arrival at the Tel Aviv Ben Gurion International Airport was close to 6 PM. After being met by Elderhostel representatives we were taken by bus to Beit Berl College, which was north of Tel Aviv. After a delicious chicken dinner we were in bed in a college dormitory at about 10 PM (2 PM New York City time). Our dormitory room was large with three beds and had a private bathroom. We learned later that solar panels on a dormitory roof was the source of our hot water.
On Monday morning, our group met fo an orientation session. Introductions of Beit Berl College faculty members were made. Beit Berl College was a teacher’s college and had a Labor Party Think Tank on campus. Beit Berl College is located on the edge of the city Kfar Saba. After orientation, we walked around in Kfar Saba, changed money (dollars to sheckels), and Galla treated herself to ice cream in a place called Penguin. We were free in the early afternoon, so we took naps and then walked around the campus taking photographs. We then had a lecture on the political background of Israel by an enthusiastic, dynamic instructor. In a meeting of our group that evening, we became acquainted by telling everybody something about ourselves. The occupations of the group members were varied and included an engineers, a dentist, a cardiologist, a nurse, and social director, dancers,
an artist, a clinical psychologist, and a chemist (me). After a bit of chitchat, still being jetlagged, we all headed for our rooms for a good night of rest.
From Tuesday, April 30 through Friday, May 3, 1985, we were keptbusy with lectures and tours. We had Hebrew language lessons lectures, which primarily dealt with Jewish-Arab relationships. Beit Berl College Israeli faculty member’s lectures were entitled Pluralism within Israel Society and Arab-Jewish Coexistence. Arab faculty members gave lectures entitled Pluralism and Conflict within the Arab Community in Israel and Arab Attitudes. Along with lecture on Arab attitudes a number of Arab students, who were studying English so they could teach the language in Arab communities, were in our classroom to have a dialog with us, the Elderhostelers. To complement the lectures we were taken on a tour of an Arab village and a drive-through tour at the edge of the West Bank where we observed Arab abd israeli communities. All in all, we believe that the presentations of Jewish and Arabs relationship were even-handed. There was a feeling of hopelessness about solving the centuries-old disputes and yet the thought that educating Jewish and Arab communities would go a long way toward resolving differences. A tour of Tel Aviv University included the Museum of the Jewish Diaspora (Bet Hatefutsoth), which is on the campus. The museum chronicles the story of the Jewish people of Israel over the last 2,500 years.
We regretted that we couldn’t spend more time in this museum. I was struck by how photographs of Jews, who had scattered from the middle-east to live in various parts of the world, somehow had facial characteristics that differed from those ascribed to Jewish people. We could take photos as we had to leave our cameras at the entrance desk while we were in the museum.
Wednesday, May 1, was a holiday, so we had no classes. We rode in a bus to the Latrun Monaestary area. We spent spme time at the School for Peace (SFP), located at the voluntary Jewish/Arab village of Neve Shalom/Wahat as Salam1 (literally, "the oasis of peace"). The community consists of a network of Jews and Arabs who are committed to co existence and who are determined to succeed despite any political setbacks. Father Bruno Hussar, an Egyptian born Jew who converted to Catholicism and became a Dominican monk, founded Neve Shalom. The School for Peace was established to bring together Arab and Jewish high school students discuss conflict resolution and learn how to live together. This concept made us have a feeling of hope for the future. After Neve Shalom we went on to have some free time in Tel Aviv. We walked on Dizengoff Street, a long main street with many great boutiques and restaurants. Our group had dinner at the Little Tel Aviv Restaurant. That night we were treated to an Israel Philharmonic Orchestra performance. We were seated where singing groups would perform with the orchestra. Gala and I were in the front row where we looked down on the percussion section. I had the crazy thought that we might be asked to sing the chorale part of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The first selection was Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. I need not say that we had the full benefits of seeing and, especially, hearing the percussion section blasting out the music of the overture. With a clear view of the podium in front of the orchestra, I was fascinated by the energetic performance of Michael Tilson Thomas, the conductor. The conductor also stimulated a memory of Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky, the famed actors who appeared regularly in New York City’s Manhattan Second Avenue Yiddish Broadway theaters. A logical reason for the occurrence of the memory flash is that in the latter part of the decade of the 1920s my parents ook me to see Jewish theater productions and Michael Tilson Thomas is the grandson of Bessie and Boris Thomashefsky.
On Thursday, May 2, after our serious academic program along with our various complementary tours it was time for some less serious entertainment. Under the leadership of someone named Ziggy Sobel we had a night of fun and games. Then we had some music for dancing. Saturday was a day which we could go out on our own or join a tour to Jerusalem. After about an hour and a half drive, Galla and I got off the tour bus at the Jaffa Gate O the old city. We walked to the Dome of Rock area. To be permitted into this area Galla’s pocketbook and our camera bags were opened for inspection. After taking photographs of the Dome of Rock, we entered the area of the Western Wall. This being the Jewish Sabbath we were informed by guards that we could not take any photographs in this area. We then hurried back to the Jaffa Gate where we were to meet the Grocoffs. Ted, Phyllis, Wendy and Matt Grocoff were friends who had emigrated to Israel from Atlanta. The family came in a Renault which could hold five people at most. Somehow, we managed
managed to squeeze into a small car. Ted made a stop to buy bread from an Arab vendor. We then had lunch at the Grocoff’s apartment at Ramot, the West Bank. We were told about the family arrival in Israel, how at first they had to learn the Hebrew language, and then they were permitted
to find employment and a residence. Quite a few years later, the Grocoffs return to Atlanta because the hard life in Israel. After lunch, we returned to the old city we visited some friends of the Grocoffs. Their friends had an apartment in the Jewish Quarter and had emigrated to Israel from Poughkeepsie, New York. After much conversation and refreshments along with the use of a bathroom, Galla and Ireturn to the Jaffa Gate. At about 4 PM we were picked up by the bus for our return to Beit Berl College.
On Sunday, May 5, our group left Beit Berl College to spend the next week in Beersheba. Among the reasons for selecting this particular Elderhostel program from the catalog was that in Beersheba the Ben Gurion University courses luisted were in the field of photography. Both of us, having become avid photographers, with a special interest in travel photography, getting to spend time in Israel along with the educational experience, which included photography courses, we were intrigued enough to become Elderhostelers. After registration and having a room assigned at the Desert Inn we had lunch and then were taken into Ben Gurion University. A Dean of the School of Continuing Education, who was from Manhattan, gave an introductory talk welcoming us. We then had a video presentation of the Negev Desert and Ben Gurion. After a tour of the campus, we returned to a classroom where we had a presentation detailing our program for next week. The technical aspects of photography were taught by one instructor, Jerry Szanton. Composition and aesthetics were taught by Anita Kushner, an artist. Besides lectures, we had the ample opportunity to go on field trips and put into practice only learned about producing photos. We loaded our cameras with black-and-white film, which made it easily possible to develop and make prints quickly. Critiques of our prints by the two instructors were very informative. The field trips that we took to shoot photos also were of educational interest.
On Monday afternoon we had our first field trip to take photos at the archaeological excavation at Mamshit. The Nabataeans, Semitic nomads from the Arabian peninsula, expanded throughout the middle east. Among the Nabatean cities found in the Negev (Avdat, Haluza, Shivta) Mamshit is the smallest (10 acres), but the best preserved and restored. Entire streets survived intact, and numerous
Nabatean buildings with open rooms, courtyards, and terraces have been restored. Most of the buildings were built in the late Nabatean period, in the 2nd century CE, after the Nabatean kingdom was annexed to Rome in 106 CE. Aside from the natural wonders, the Negev played host to a great number of ancient sites, displaying the rich history of this crossroads of trade between Asia, Africa, and Europe. Our group took mny photos of this historic excavation site. After dinner we all went to a Bedouin encampment. In a large tent we sat on the floor on individual rugs. We conversed with the Bedouin men through an interpreter and lesrnd much aboutthir culture. And of course, as photos were permitted we took advantage of this opportunity.
Our field trip on Tuesday included the Ramon Nature Reserve and Sde Boker. The Ramon Crater, the Negev Mountains and one settlement, the small town of Mitzpe Ramon were all part of the national park, the Ramon Nature Reserve. The Ramon Crater is 24 miles long and 0.6 to 6 miles wide, and is shaped like an elongated heart. the landform is not actually an impact crater from a meteor, but rather is the world's largest makhtesh. The Hebrew term makhtesh, by definition, a makhtesh is an erosion valley walled with steep cliffs on all sides and drained by a single watercourse. This site offered views dear to the heart of a photographer. After leavng the Ramon Crater, we ent to Sde Boker (Hebrew: ?????? ??????? , lit. Cowboy's Field). Sde Boker is a kibbutz in the Negev best known as the retirement home of Israel's first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion. In 1953 Prime Minister Ben Gurion resigned from office and moved to the kibbutz. He continued to live in the kibbutz until his death in 1973. Beside the kibbutz, we saw the tombstone and memorial for David Ben Gurion and his wife. From the tombstone site one could like down on the the Negev expanse. This indeed, was an appropriate burial place for the former Prime Minister as he had a vision of cultivating the Negev desert.
On Wednesday, we had critique of our photos and lectures by Jerry and Anita. Taking photos in the Negev was a challenge due the brightly lit sky and lightly hued landscape. It was an area where the automatic exposure settings on our cameras could be incorrect, and later on looking at our prints, this turned out to be so. Galla and I had neglected to adjust our camera exposures to compensate for the incorrect automatic aperture and time settings. On our camera we had a devuce
which could permit us to adjust the automatic exposure reading by bracketing the automatic settings with lesser and greater exposures. In the afternoon, we had a firld trip to the Yatir Forest. On the way we had a distant views of Tel Shokel Bedouin encampments. Yatir Forest is located on the southern slopes of Mount Hebron, on the edge of the Negev Desert. The forest is the largest planted forest in Israel. The first trees were planted in 1964 by the Jewish National Fund at the initiative of Yosef Weitz. It is named after the ancient Levite city within its territory, Yatir, as written in the Old Testament. Over a million trees have been planted, mostly coniferous trees, but also many broad leafed trees. Yatir Forest has changed the arid landscape of the northern Negev. It has proven to be a prime ecological instrument, halting the transformation of arable or habitable land to desert on the heights northeast of Beersheba. After dinner we went to Anita Kusner’s art show. Before going back to the hotel there was a stop for us to treat ourselves with some good ice cream.
Our Thursday morning our field trip was to a Bedouin open air market. The market was crowded with both vendors and those there to purchase domestic need items. It was a photographer’s delight. We had an photographic critique session after which we had some free time. Before dinner we were treated with an Isreal symphonietta concert. After dinner an orthodox Jewish wedding took place in the dining room. I began shooting photos and it wasn’t long before I was in the middle of the crowded dancers whooping it up. I became conscious of my not wearing a hat, but the crowd of dancers did not seem to notice me. That to the orthodox would be sacroligious. I suspect that I was lucky because I might have been mobbed had I been noticed.
On Friday morning we ere taken to see Abraham’s well which is a tourist attraction. We then walked around in the old city of Beersheba. Galla and I sat at an outdoor table for a while. We noticed a stand that blending fruit into drinks. We tried the fruit blends and found that they were delicious. Back at the hotel we were at leisure during the afternoon. We did select three photos each for exhibition on Saturday. After dinner, the there were arrangments for members of our group to visit Israeli residents. I arranged our visit. Before leaving for the Elderhostel, I had a telephone conversation with Bob Schaffer at the NIST. After covering some technical matters, I mentioned that we were going to Israel. After Bob asked if we would be in Beersheba during this Elderhostel and I said we would, Bob suggested that I should to get in touch a clinical chemist Maurice Green. According to Bob, Maurice Green had migrated to Isreal and was now using Moishe as his first name. I did get in touch with Dr. Green who was heading the chemiistry laboratory at the Siroka Medical Center. The Soroka Medical Center is the largest medical center in the southern region of Israel. Moishe Green picked us up at the hotel at about 8 PM. When we came to the hotel we suddenly realized that we had met before at some AACC meeting. We visited their nice small apartment where we met Mrs. Green and a daughter. Another daughter was srudying graphic arts in Jerusalem. We had to cut our interesting visit s short as we needed to get up early next morning for an optional tour.
Our Masada tour began with several stops in the Negev. Our guide, originally from Algeria, was very knowledgeable about the desert. At a stop at a makhtesh smaller than the Ramon Crater, the guide had the group members search for fossils. I am not aware of anyone finding any. We were informed that phosphate salts were in abundance at this crater. Our next stop was at the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is 1,340 below sea level, the lowest water surface on earth. It is nearly seven times as salty as an ocean. There is no life within the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea, because of its high salt content, provides for good health and healing for vacationers from all over the world. The sea bed also has deposits of black mud that is easy to spread on the body which provides the skin with nourishing minerals. It was a bit strange to see people with mud packed on their bodies walking around at this lowest spa in the world. The Masada is a site of ancient palaces and fortifications on top of an isolated rock plateau, on the eastern edge of the Negev, overlooking the Dead Sea. After the First Jewish Roman War a siege of the fortress by troops of the Roman Empire led to the mass suicide of the Jewish rebels, who preferred death to surrender. At least that is the story, except that archaeologists can find no evidence of the suicides. Some members of our group walked up the steep cliff on a winding path. We went to the top of the cliffs by cable car. This site was also a photographer’s delight. Although the day was tiring for us, we attended the photo exhibition and graduation ceremonies that Saturday night. We each received a certificate stating that we had completed successfully the photography courses.
Sunday, May 12, was moving day. We left Beersheba at a AM and arrived at the Beit Oren Kibbutz, Haifa, at about 12:30 PM. The Beit Oren Kibbutz is situated ihe heart of the Carmel Mountains at an altitude of about 1300 feet. Our assigned room in the guesthouse was very nice. We had a tour of the grounds at about 3 PM. The grounds had many pine trees and we had a panoramic view of the surrounding area. At an orientation session we learned is that the Kibbutz was a socialistic coop organization. Inasmuch as their agricultural efforts could no longer sustain them they now depended a wire factory in tourists staying at their guesthouse. We were given kits and the program for classes at Haifa The university is located in ine of the Carmel mountain peaks and the main high-rise building is the Eshkol Tower.
The week in Haifa began badly for me. On Sunday night, about 11:30 PM, I woke up with chills and in the morning a thermometer reading was 100 ?F. Galla went to the Universityfor classe while I remained at the guest house that day. Taking Aspirin and sleep seened to quell whatever the reason for the fever.
On Tuesday, Galla and I both went to classes with the group. A video tape and two lectures about the news media was on the program for the morning. In particular, the lecture was about by a foreign correpondent and about correspondents in Israel. In the afternoon we went to the Druze village of Daliyat el Carmel. This Druze village is high on the slopes of Mt. Carmel. It was a colorful village that on the main street had dozens of stores offering varied wares and many restaurants serving genuine Druze ethnic foods. Our guide led the group to the home of Makladel, a Druze individual, who was a good speaker. We learned that the Druze religion that split off from Islam in Egypt about 1,000 years ago. According to the Druze, their religion is the renewal of an ancient faith that became a secret known only to the group’s sages. The Druze community in Israel is officially recognized as a separate religious entity with their culture which is Arab and their language Arabic. They opted against mainstream Arab nationalism in 1948 and have since served in the Israel Defense Forces and the Border Police.
On Wednesday and Thursday, still not feeling well, I remained at the guest house. Galla stayed with me on Thursday. On Friday, feeling better, we cut classes and took a bus to spend some time in the morning in Central haifa. We did some shopping before returning to the Kibbutz. In the afternoon at Galla went with the group to artist’s village. On Saturday, Galla took an optional tour to the Golan Heights. Two couple and I took a taxi, driven by an Arab for Israel a transportation
closed down on the Sabbath, to the Haifa Museum. The exhibits consisted of photographs, art, and a Jewish costumes. We then took another taxi to a higher level of Mount Carmel where we walked around in a Japanese Museum. All five of us then had a pleasant lunch at the Hotel Dan. Soon after we left Israel, there was a news report that the Hotel Dan was bombed. After a pleasant walk on Panorama Drive, we hailed a taxi which took us back to Beit Oren. In a way, dinner was a bit sad, and yet joyous, as our Elderhostel program was at an end and goodbyes were said. A good part of our group left for the airport to take a flight back to the States. One of the couples that I went with to Haifa that morning, Jane and Larry Herman, left to stay at an airport hotel as they had an early flight to Cairo for the next morning. Larry was a cardiologist. We kept in touch with the Herman for quite a while after coming home. The Hermans lived in Southern California and we had a standing invite to stay with them if we happened to be in California . We did see this couple when they came to Atlanta where Larry attended a cardiologist’s meeting. Soon after they returned home from Atlanta, we received a letter from Jane with the bad news that Larry had died of a heart attack while sailing in his boat.
When we commited ourselves to the Elderhostel in Israel, we also took advantage of the organization arrangement to spend several days in Egypt at the end of our program in Haifa. On Sunday, May 20, after packing our belongings we walked around the grounds of the Beit Oren
Kibbutz. We photographed some kindergarten children playing outdoors. In a conversation with the teacher, we learned that she was doing this instead of serving the mandatory two years in the armed forces because of religious scruples. After taking it easy early afternoon, at 4 PM, we were picked up by a limo to drive us to the Ben Gurion International Airport. The driver was quite talkative and came from Russia. He told us that he fought in the War of Independence (November 1947 July 1949), the Sinai War (October 1956), and the Six Day War (June 1967)respectively. Then we were told that the Russian Jews coming to Israel now were rascals and crooks. While talking the driver took his hands off the steering wheel quite a few times. Sitting on the front passenger seat I could see the speedometer, which indicated about 60 miles an hour. A, every time he began waving his arms we shouted get your hands back on the steering wheel. This hour and a half scary ride ended at the airport without an accident. The flight to Cairo was without any incident . At the Cairo airport the only way to describe the crowd outside of the terminal building was that we were looking at a mass of humanity. We were met by a R&H Voyage representative. We were bussed to the Marriott Cairo Hotel. The hotel on our room were very nice.
The next day we had a morning tour which took us to the Giza pyramids and the Sphinx. At the
pyramid site there were Arabs who try to entice us to take a ride on one of their camels. I was amazed at the size of the cubiclal rocks of which the pyramids were constructed. A close view of a did show the stairlike rises of the rocks, while at a distance the surfaces of the pyramids seemed
smooth. After lunch at the Cairo Hilton Hotel coffee shop we were taken by bus through the central part of Cairo and then to the older part of the city. The traffic was horrendous, chaotic, there
was much horn blowing from many cars. At the Cairo Museum and impressive King Tut exhibit was very interesting . We then paid a visit to the old Ben Ezra synagogue and a Coptic Church. After walking around in a bazaar we were taken to the railroad depot. At 7 PM we boarded a train for an overnight ride to Luxor. An airline type of dinner was served in our train compartment. I slept in the upper berth.
Breakfast was served at 5:30 AM and we arrived in Luxor at 7 AM. Our transportation to Hotel Etap was in the carriage pulled by two horses. At 8:30 AM we left for morning tours of the Collossi of Mennon, Valley of Queens, Valley of Kings, ad Temples of the Queens. Galla visited the tomb of king Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings. While waiting for Galla near a tourist bus an Arab vendor, from one of the many souvenir booths in the area, came over to me, put his arm around my shoulder, and said I should look at is wares as he had to send his daughter to college. Without thinking, I said something like that I have a daughter to send to college, which was a white lie. The vendor, then said you must be an Israeli. I said that I am an American. If looks could kill, I wouldn’t be writing this. The vendor or walked away. Because it was very hot, we were relieved
to be taken back to the Hotel Etap for lunch in a lobby shop. At 2:30 PM, we were taken to the Karnak complex by horse and wagon. After Karnak, we visited the Temple of Luxor. We then walked back to the hotel, had dinner, and were in bed early as we had a 6 AM flight to Cairo
next day. The whirlwind tour of the Luxor attractions left a memory of what seemed incredible
structures erected in ancient Egypt. The same could be said of the Sphinx and the pyramids.
At the breakfast buffet, on Wednesday, May 22, we noticed that a waiter dropped the rolls on the tray hewas carrying and after picking them up from the floor and put them on the buffet table. Galla looked at me and said something like don’t dare takec a roll. The early flight to Cairo brought us to Cairo by 9 AM and because of very heavy traffic, it seemed to take a long time before we were back at the Marriott Cairo Hotel. After lunch, in spite of the dust and heat, we took a short walk along the Nile River/ because I had a telephoto lens on one of my cameras, Galla asked me to take a photo of a very decorative balcony on what seemed a large apartment house across the street. As I aimed my camera, a soldier or policeman armed guard, stood in front of me with an automatic rifle pointed in my direction. Luckily, there was a kid who indicated that taking a photo of the balcony was off limits. When I pointed at the balcony, the armed guard, rotated his head to indicate do not do it. When I pointed at the Nile River, the guard shook his head to indicate yes. I was very relieved when that automatic rifle change direction. We learned later that a diplomat had an apartment in the building with that balcony. The rest of the day was uneventful.
On Thursday, May 23, in the morning, we had a tour to the Sakhara pyramids and Memphis, the capital of Ancient Egypt. By this time, we were so tired after the full schedule of tours in Egypt that
whatever the guide told us during the tour didn’t seem to register. Back at the hotel and 2 PM, we had lunch, cleaned up, repacked our luggage, checked our luggage at the hotel, and sat around until 6 PM. That evening, at the airport, after going through security, we went through El Al security. When we were asked if we had been with the luggage since we packed, we mentioned that our bags
had been in the hotel check-room. We then had open our suitcases in the El Al guard did a thorough examination of the contents. On the flight back to the Ben Gurion International Airport, the passengers who were going on to New York City were given boarding passes and asked to stay on the airliner after it landed. When only those going to New York City where the only ones left on the airliner, mercifully, we were shepherded to the gate and we did not have to go through security
again. In New York City, after being cleared by customs, we flew to Boston, rented a car, and drove to Westboro to visit Rachel and William. Our trip ended on Sunday, May 26, with a flight back to Atlanta. All in all, the Elderhostel made us enthusiastic adherents for this organization.
Monday, September 15 to Sunday, August 31, 1986 Galla and I did not take any major trips until November 1986. Between Monday, September 15 to Sunday, September 21, Galla and I drove to High Point, North Carolina and then Gatlinburg, Tennessee. High Point is regarded as the furniture capital of the world by North Carolinians. We spent several days at High Point and we were a bit disappointed at not finding a piece of furniture that we were looking for. The reason for going to Gatlinburg was that I was on a CDC assignment to take a statistics workshop. The instructor was the statistician John Mandel, from NIST. Knowing John Mandel from previous meetings, besides enjoying the statistics workshop, we had dinner with him.
NATE: CDC On May 23, 1978, I was given a new job description. This position was established as a research chemist in the Quality Assurance and Technical Information Activity of the Office of the Director, Clinical Chemistry Division. I was now to serve as a national and international authority in clinical chemistry research responsible for developing and conducting a broadly based attack on information transfer from the Clinical Chemistry Division programs to other Federal agencies, manufacturers, educational institutions, clinical laboratories, and the World Health Organization (WHO). Further duties included (1) to assist the Division Director in the assessment of national needs in clinical chemistry through documentation to develop plans for new programs to meet these needs; (2) to prepare special abstracts of current literature and other public scientific documents for the staff of the Division and public use; (3) to develop a division wide record keeping system; and (4) to assist the Clinical Chemistry Division Standardization Section, when needed, in program development.
Allergan, Inc., with its corporate headquarters in Irvine, California, is a specialty pharmaceutical and medical technology company. I was informed that at Allergan, laboratory data was entered into their computer system rather than into laboratory notebooks. Arrangements were made for me to visit Allergan in July, 1978. I spent a good part of a day learning about their laboratory data computer entries. After attending the AACC annual meeting in San Francisco, I returned to Atlanta where I reported my findings at Allergan. There was some discussion about this computer system. At this time most of the people involved with laboratory data still liked the idea of using laboratory notebooks rather than computers.
As a principal lecturer, I participated in the training course entitled Quality Assurance in Clinical Chemistry (July 9 - 13,1979). The fundamental concepts and principles of quality assurance in the clinical chemistry laboratory were presented. The initiation and operation of procedures to maintain quality assurance were examined by lectures, laboratory, and problem sessions.
As of July 31, 1979, I was transferred to the Metabolic Biochemistry Branch, of the Center for Disease Control, Bureau of Laboratories. My mission was now research and development of stable lipid reference materials. It was on Tuesday, February 19, 1980, that at a seminar, I presented a paper entitled Stability of lipoproteins in serum reference materials. I also presented the paper on April 19, 1980, at the AACC Southeast Spring meeting at the Medcal University of South Carolina, Charleston.
Samual Graiser, a Public Health Service Officer, who was assigned to work with me in the laboratory, and I, performed some experiments to determine the effect of radiation on serum components. If radiation had no effect on serum components then we would follow up the experiment to determine the sterilizing effects of irradiated serum. As I was not permitted to enter the Virus Laboratory Building, it was Sam who was able to enter and expose serum portions to radiation from a cobalt source. The essential findings were that radiation had no effect of serum components. We presented the paper entitled Sterilization of serum by ionizing radiation at the AACC Southeast Section Fall meeting , at the Hyatt Birmingham, Alabama, on Friday, October 17, 1980.
he October 14, 1980, the Federal Register had the following entry: Center for Disease Control reorganizes to become the Centers for Disease Control: Staff Offices which are the Office of the Director, Office of Administrative Management, Office of Biosafety, CDC Washington Office, Office of Program Planning and Evaluation, and Office of Public Affairs. Program Offices consisted of Epidemiology Program Office, International Health Program Office, and Laboratory Improvement Program Office. The six centers are in the Center for Prevention Services, Center for Environmental Health, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Center for Health Promotion and Education, Center for Professional Development and Training, and the Center for Infectious Diseases.
In a letter of August 12, 1981, addressed to Chris Walker, M.D., Department of Pathology, MacMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, I accepted an invitation to attend the 25th anniversary meeting of the AACC Upstate New York Section, October 22 and 23, 1981. The charter members of the AACC Upstate New York Section, which includes me, were invited to attend this meeting and to participate on a panel to discuss personal reminiscences of changes in clinical chemistry. This meeting took place in Buffalo, New York. On arrival the evening before the meeting, I found a message at the hotel to call Max Chilcote. The call resulted in Max picking me up and taking me to his home. I was pleasantly surprised on arrival to find former New York State colleagues gathered to greet me like a long lost brother. The next day, while sitting in front of the meeting room with the other members of the panel, I was startled by the youthfulness of the audience. The panel members reminisced about the state of clinical chemistry when the first AACC Upstate New York Section organizational meeting took place on December 4, 1957, in Batavia, New York. I suspect that we were thought of as dinosaurs.
From October 1, 1981 until April 4, 1984, I had a number of transfers from one unit to another. During this time, it is unclear as to the sequence of my assignments. I know that I was transferred to the Endocrinology Laboratory and as a Chemist/Instructor in the Diagnostic Immunology Training Branch. During these years I engaged in literature searches to support project needs and I was involved in writing reports.
Having kept up my interest in standards for the clinical chemistry laboratory, I spent a number of evenings at my CDC office writing a paper entitled What Is A Standard? - Revisited. After being reviewed by the CDC editors and my supervisors, I submitted the paper to the AACC journal Clinical Chemistry. I do not know who the reviewers of the submitted paper were, but after being reviewed the first time, I had suggestions for some changes. After making the changes suggested, I submitted the paper the second time and again, I had suggestions for some changes. I submitted the paper of their time and this time there was an all out rejection. Stan King, the Journal editor wrote a letter in which he stated that I should not submit the paper again. I suspect that the paper was rejected because of my opposition to commercial control materials being called standards.
During the spring of 1983, a group of medical technologists came to CDC from the Institute of Biological Products, in Shanghai, China. I spent time with a number of individuals of this group to discuss the use of standards in the clinical chemistry laboratory. I invited Ms. Chen Lee to our home for dinner. At dinner, my wife and I told Ms. Chen Lee that we were scheduled to visit China for a cruise on Yangtze River and also visit a number of the major cities. It wasn’t long before I got an invite to visit the Institute of Biological Products when in Shanghai. After getting cleared at CDC to have my secretary write a letter stating that I was a tourist, but I would be happy to visit the Institute.
Being advised to bring a gift, I chose a book about quality assurance to present at my visit. A national conference on quality assurance in laboratories related to health, cosponsored by the American Public Health Association and the Center for Disease Control, was held November 19 through 21, 1974. The purpose of the conference was to serve as a forum to develop concepts on quality assurance practices in laboratories related to health. Authors and invited participants who had been active in quality assurance in various laboratory specialties were afforded an opportunity to present and discuss the concepts to be included in the volume. Although I was not a participant in any discussion, I acted as one of the secretaries who took notes during the working session discussions by the clinical chemistry group. The outcome of this conference was the book published by the American Health Association. [Inhorn SL, ed. Quality assurance practices for health laboratories. Washington : American Public Health Association, 1978:xvi, 1244 pp.]
Two weeks before leaving for China, I received a letter from Dr. Zhang, the one who invited me to visit the Institute. In this letter, I was asked to give a lecture at the Institute, but no topic was mentioned. Being that I had slides for my seminar on the stability of biological materials, I took them on our trip. In Shanghai, I had our Chinese guide call Dr. Z to tell him that we had arrived . Dr. Z came to our room that evening and it turns out his Ph.D. was in the field of physical chemistry from a Chinese University. He learned English from a missionary group. We were told because of the cultural revolution that China needed journals and books. I was also told that the Institute prepared standards for the many clinical laboratories in China, but the laboratories did not trust these standards. I was asked to speak about standards the next day. During the morning of the next day I was given a tour of the Institute. Their chemistry laboratories certainly needed modernizing. After lunch, I was escorted into a room with about 50 medical technologists from hospitals in the area. I worked with a translator and gave one lecture on the stability of biological materials and then about standards. I believe that I talked for about four hours, and I enjoyed every bit of it. There was a question period after my talks and I was happy to realize that the translator was able to translate my English well enough that the audience comprehended what I had to say. I presented the book quality assurance to Dr. Z as a gift and after the seminar ended I was presented with a Chinese art book. My impression at that time was there was a hunger for knowledge. I am quite sure many changes have taken place since my visit to the Institute.
The Clinical Chemists of Georgia meeting sponsored by Eastman Kodak, on Tuesday, December 13, 1983. Met at the Hotel Dunfey, Atlanta, Georgia. The topic of the meeting was Clinical Chemistry in China. The speakers were myself and Dr. Eloise Eavenson. Dr. Evenson spent several months in China and she described the status of clinical chemistry in that country more accurately than I could. I presented our slide record of our three week tour of China (August 20-September 15, 1983). I also talked about my visit at the Institute of Biological Products, in Shanghai.
On April 2, 1984, I was transferred into the Centers for Disease Control, Laboratory Program Office, Division of Technology Evaluation and Assistance, Office of the Director. My assignments were directed toward preparing material for assisting clinical chemistry laboratories quality-control programs. Joyce Essien, M.D., a pathologist and Director of the Division of Technology Evaluation and Assistance, appointed me represent the CDC on in the NCCLS Instrument Committee. On Thursday, May 13, 1986, I flew to Denver for a committee meeting the next day. That evening, at an airport hotel, I had dinner with John Zlockie, the NCCLS Representative. After much discussion with members of the committee the next day, I headed back to take a flight to Atlanta that evening. I will long remember that flight because of the weather, the airliner was vibrating all over and pitching like an ocean liner on rough seas.
Having occurred quite a few times in the past, I was not surprised to hear that thete would be another reorganization by the end of 1986. Reorganizations at CDC took place periodically to meet the public health needs of the times. Inasmuch as it was probable that I would be reassigned to another unit with another new job description, I decided it was timet o retire. On Thursday afternoon , August 28, 1986, a retirement party for me was a bit sentimental when friends and colleagues came to share memories. I was presented with a framed caricature, drawn by the CDC artist. As Galla and I had been making international trips on our vacations where we combined our trips with the hobby of photography. The caricature predicted what our lives would be like after retirement and from many years the prediction was true.
NATE AND GALLA For several years Galla and I had discussed retirement. There was a reluctance to do so for financial reasons. There was uncertainty about how are retirement income. I was credited for 24 years of federal service. The Federal Employee Plan was a good one. Over the years we had some investments in the stock market, mutual funds, money markets, and bank certificates of deposit. From January 20, 1977 to January 20, 1981, during the Jimmy Carter presidency, there was a period of double-digital inflation. We took advantage of the inflationary period by even borrowing about $8,000 from our 20 year $10,000 paid-up GI life insurance policy at a very low interest rate. The $8,000 wnvested in certificates of deposit with double-digit interest . The borrowed money was paid backas the inflationary period subsided. And of course, we were cautious about our investments of the money Galla in inherited from members of her family. Galla and I always lived within our means. At the end of August 31, 1986 on net worth
was in the neighborhood of $230,000. At retirement, our income would be dependent on
annuities front the federalretirement plan, TIAA-CREF, a yearly stipend from a Mutual of America Monroe Solomon insurance policy, interest and dividends. At the time I am writing this memoir, I can say that we lived reasonably well on our retirement income. We need not have been afraid to retire because of financial reasons.
I suppose I can say, another reason for retirement was that I passed my 67th birthday in January of 1986 and retirement would mean that I could participate in other activities outside of my vocation. One thing that I did do before retirement party was to purchase an AT&T Computer at the cost of $2,282.80 . This contemporary personal computer had a hard drive which may have had the capacity of 10 MB. The operating system was Microsoft DOS. My initial intention was purchase was to use the Word Perfect word processing program to write a book about quality control in the clinical laboratory. This never came about, however, this computer, and future computers which were purchased periodically, just about became a necessity for us. Not only word processing and financial record keeping software were useful but technological development advances kept occurring rapidly which gave personal computers capabilities that were just imagined previous to 1986.
1Radin N. Quality assurance in clinical chemistry, I. Workbook. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control, 1971:222 pp.
2Radin N. Quality assurance in clinical chemistry, II. Primer. Atlanta: Centers for Disease Control, 1971:112 pp.
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