“As I plan to attend the Reunion this year, I suppose I should bring classmates and others up to date. After Deerfield, I attended Oberlin College and Harvard Medical School, Interned at the Penna. Hospital in Philadelphia, and did a residency in Internal Medicine at the U. of Chicago. I stayed on there, becoming a Gastroenterologist in the process, for 15 years before moving to New York in ’73. I married Jessie Kindel, of Grand Rapids, in 1960, and we had a daughter Elisabeth (1960) and a son Thomas (1963.) In NY I did research at Rockefeller University and the Columbia College of P & S, and joined Smith, Kline & French in 1985. After several retirements, including after 15 years working for Forest Laboratories in NY, I have now been fully retired for about 7 years.
For those interested in athletics, I was a 3-time All-American Soccer player at Oberlin, and I only recently found out that my Deerfield fellow fullback, Charlie Ufford, was also an All-American soccer player at Harvard! I also was co-captain of the Lacrosse team at Oberlin, and played with the Boston Lacrosse Club during medical school.
Unfortunately, Jessie,, my wife of 60 years, died in 2020 from complications of an bowel surgery. I am comforted by two wonderful children and five grandchildren.
I am still in pretty good shape, considering, and enjoying a very full life. Among other things, I sing with the New Amsterdam Singers in New York. When the time comes, I will move to the Mather, a retirement community in Evanston, Illinois. I look forward to seeing at least a few old friends in June.”
Bob Palmer ’49