My Lifelong Childhood

"What we do during our working hours determines what we have; what we do in our leisure hours determines what we are."                                          George Eastman (1854-1932)  Founder of Kodak, Photography Pioneer, and                                                 Rochester Philanthropist The city of Rochester, NY was never really on my radar.  I had never been there, had known no Rochesterians, and didn't even have a good idea of just where it was.  If you're from the greater New York City area, Upstate New York is considered anything above Westchester County.  Sure, I knew about Canton, Syracuse, Cherry Valley and the Adirondack Mountains but Rochester was beyond, in western New York.  I had a map of the state (pre-google days) and found it was on Lake Ontario, one of the Great Lakes, and just to the north of the Finger Lakes.  It was about half way between Syracuse and Buffalo and, therefore, not too far from the Canadian border.  It was the

"I call therefore a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly,       skillfully,  and magnanimously all the offices both private and public of peace and war"                                                                                 John Milton (1608-1674) The end of my formal education was coming into view as my last year of Pediatric Residency was to begin.  I was now a "Senior Resident" which involved mentoring the young doctors in the class below me.  It also came with acquisition of some administrative and leadership skills.  There were many mentors at Akron Children's Hospital but those I remember most were Dr. Joe Kastelic, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist who taught me humility and patience in the face of the sickest children and their families, Dr. Bob Benson, an endocrinologist who was a stickler for thoroughness, and Dr. Gary Benfield, a pioneer in neonatology who taught me the importance of bringing in t