1955

One of the more interesting careers that has come to our attention is that of John Porvaznik, who is the chief of surgery and senior clinician for the Indian Health Service. He is employed by the U.S. Public Health Service to care for the Indians on a Navajo reservation located in northern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico. When John was completing a surgical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, he felt that there were challenges in medicine that were not being met. Having heard of the Indian Health Service, he decided that that might be a good place to begin. He has been pursuing that course since 1962 and has found great professional satisfaction in so doing. Although he is faced with a lack of resources in his practice, he sees this lack more as a challenge than as a frustration.

He and his wife Eunice, who is a nurse, live very close to the Indian Medical Center. John feels that his children have obtained an education that they could not have gotten elsewhere, since they have been raised as members of a minority - which they are in their Indian environment. John has had to overcome some resistance that the Navajo culture had to medicine. Many members of pre-technological cultures view hospitals as places where people go to die, not to be cured. But he has seen this type of resistance to hospitals diminished greatly since he began his work. He does observe, however, that the Navajos are generally slow to decide about surgery. Protracted discussion among family members is usually held, with dozens of relatives gathered around the patient as the physician ex- plains the situation by showing x-rays and books on anatomy and having former patients describe their hospital experiences. The final decision on surgery is sometimes arrived at as much as three days later.

According to some of his colleagues, John is thought of as "the closest thing to a saint among those with whom he works." He has been the recipient of several awards and medals from the Indian Health Service and the Navajo tribe. Although he is isolated from any major metropolitan medical center, he observes that his medical efficiency is greatly improved by being a member of the community, not to mention that he doesn't have to commute for an hour.

A news bulletin released by the Hanes Corporation reveals that Larry Nadler has been named chief executive officer of the combined Canadelle Inc. and Bali Bra divisions of Hanes. Larry joined Canadelle after getting his M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and has been president of that entity since 1969. He is a director of various trade associations and is a lecturer on business strategy at McGill University Graduate School of Management, where he imparts his knowledge about good business foundations (or vice versa).

An item in the Fitchburg-Leominster Sentineland Enterprise reveals that Charlie Gordon has joined that newspaper's editorial staff as correspondent for the town of Ayer, Mass. After graduation, Charlie attended the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and since that time he has been teaching and has also had writing experience with public relations firms and various weekly newspapers.

Dick Fairley has been appointed associate commissioner/director of the division of education for the disadvantaged within the Office of Education of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Dick has been serving as a division director of the Office of Education since 1971, during which time he has demonstrated great management and administrative skills directing the Office of Education's programs for the disadvantaged. Dick received his master's degree in 1969 from Stanford University and an E.D. degree from the University of Massachusetts in 1974. While at Stanford, he served as a National Institute of Public Affairs Fellow.

Just as Larry Nadler would find it difficult to make use of the product he's in charge of selling, Bob MacNally seems to have the same problem. Bob has recently been named president of the PGA Golf Division of Walter Kidde and Company, manufacturers of golfing equipment. Through diligent work he claims to have brought his handicap down to 28, but his lack of skill as a golfer does nothing to impede his management skill in organization, planning, and marketing. Bob got his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and was boss of Kinark Corporation's chemical group in Hinsdale, Ill., when an executive recruitment firm approached him about the PGA post last spring. At the time he took the job. Bob owned five different makes of clubs. The first thing he did was fill his bag with his own product. I'm sure he claims that is the reason for the six-shot reduction in his handicap. PGA products are distributed through pro shops and are well-estab-lished in the men's golf equipment field, but it is in the women's market where his company has made its greatest headway with its "butterfly" golf club line. Bob claims that today one out of every four golfers is a woman, and his firm is getting more than its share of that market.

The reunion beat goes on. Be sure you're on hand and help your committee by committing early for the big event, June 13-15, 1980.

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