1961

Greetings. We had planned to bring you a report of our executive committee meeting over Thanksgiving weekend at Dave Prewitt's office in Philadelphia, but the Magazine changed the deadline from December to November 15. You'll have to wait 'til March to hear what came from our lengthy agenda, especially the schedule for 1991 mini-reunions and plans for our class projects.

A company founded by Robert Garvin has won the 1990 Canada Award for Business Excellence (a top national award), in the invention category, for the development of a process for detecting minute amounts of viruses or cancers. The announcement came from Industry, Science, and Technology Minister Benoit Bouchard.

Garvin's company is Cangene Corp, a Canadian genetic engineering company based in Mississauga, Ontario. Besides being a founder, Garvin also is research director. The process, called nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA), rapidly copies nucleic acids that are present in the body, enabling far earlier detection of disease molecules. In fact, about a year ago the company made its first big splash when it reached a deal with the Dutch pharmaceutical firm AKZO Pharma International to sell and develop the test for food and agriculture. According to stories in the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail, the test can find and copy a specific disease molecule, such as the HIV virus, when as few as 100 molecules are present in a blood sample, shortening the detection time to hours. Garvin was a pioneer in Canadian industrial biotechnology, and as a genetic engineer he helped develop both a recombinant human insulin and synthetic human vaccines.

Small World Department: GerryKaminsky's son Mike is now a second-year student at the Cordoza School of Law in New York, where he has Prof. Elliot Weiss. By the way, Gerry says, Mike has just gotten engaged.

According to the October 1 issue of Business Week, Bill Blue is stepping down as commissioner of the Ladies Professional Golf Association after about 18 months on the job.

One of the nice things about being 51 and active is that most folks aren't. That means age-group competition is not as fierce for me as it is for 30 and 40-year-olds in road races, biathlons, and triathlons. Even understanding that, it still feels good to "show" after having never really scored in athletic competition before in my life. I finished an age-group third place in two consecutive competitions: the Toughman Triathlon at Camp Lejeune and the Southland Biathlon in Greensboro. Sure, the thundering herds of kids finished way ahead. But at 51 it's fun passing any 20- or 25- year-old in one of these races.

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