1967

This month's mail has produced major press coverage of two of our classmates. Fred Cowen, immediate past attorney general for the state of Kentucky, has joined a major Louisville law firm, Lynch, Cox, Oilman, and Mahan. In announcing Fred's decision, various publications showered considerable praise on Fred for his various achievements as a member of the Kentucky General Assembly and as Attorney General. Among other things, Fred argued successfully before the United States Supreme Court when it upheld Kentucky's death penalty. He intends to continue with his interest in public policy by specializing in litigation and regulatory matters.

Certainly one of the major medical stories of the century has been the unfolding of the mysteries of the AIDS epidemic. I am struck by how few people I meet these days have not been touched by the disease in some way. I have now lost five former students and a childhood friend to AIDS, and every day I confront the problem of working with adolescents who believe they are immortal. As a result I found it very interesting to see in the papers that Ford Von Reyn is very much involved in the fight to understand its epidemiology. Recently two patients at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, where Ford is chairman of the infectious diseases center, were diagnosed as having AIDS-like symptoms without evidence of infection with the HIV virus. Ford has been quoted widely for his view that this represents the discovery of a group of syndromes, not a single condition. He also believes that suppressed-immune-system syndromes will be found to be caused by a number of different factors. Ford has become a spokesperson for the position that we need more commitment to the "problems that are allowing AIDS to spread, virtuallyunchecked, throughout the world." It is heartening to know that people like Ford are out there working on this critical issue.

Given the wonderful feedback that I have heard about our reunion, I hope that everyone is saving May 1 for the special Guys and Dolls mini-reunion in New York that Bill Yaggy is planning.

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