1962

We were strolling along the main street of the spectacular hillside city of Cortona, in the region of Tuscany, Italy. It was October, the weather was perfect and we were just getting acquainted with our travel companions on a Dartmouth Alumni College abroad trip. There was this distinguished gentleman who seemed to know his way around the shops. He must have been ahead of the learning curve about how red wine was good for you since he had already picked up a few bottles of a fine Brunello. "Hi, I'm Richard Hannah, and I went to Dartmouth—class of 1962," I said. "Nice to meet you, Richard, I'm Stuart Heydt, and you and I are classmates!" Meeting Stu and his wife, Judie, was just one of many fine features of our trip.

At dinner in Hotel San Luca we had a chance to learn a bit more. Stu left Dartmouth after his junior year to proceed upon an innovative career path that included Navy service, oral surgery training, a medical degree from Nebraska Medical School and certification as a maxillo-facial surgeon. After practicing his surgical specialty for some years Stu got interested in the administrative side of medicine, became active in the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) and was the organizations president in 1993. Later Stu became the head of the Geisinger Health System, a large integrated system of physicians, hospitals and clinics, together with a bio-technical maintenance corporation and a health insurance plan. It serves northeastern and north central Pennsylvania. A few years back the Geisinger Health System linked up with the Hershey Medical Center. Stu was asked to head up this merged entity for the three years that it existed until the partners decided to disengage. Stu explained to our group that "its really tough to manage doctors. Each one has his or her own idea of how it should be." (I thought to myself that managing doctors is about as easy as herding cats.)

These days Stu devotes his time to a variety of board positions such as a director of Pennsylvania Power & Light and a trustee of Wilkes Barre University. He continues to serve on the faculty of the ACPE.

At another dinner at Hotel San Luca, savoring the regional table red wine (one can't be too careful about the care of one's heart), we were talking with Dartmouth alums about the class of 1962 faculty fellowship. Graziella Parati, an Italian lady who came to Dartmouth in 1991, listened attentively. She was our professor for the tour and a terrific resource about Italian history, culture, language and more. She spoke up. "I won that fellowship a few years back! It was a great chance to do research and write." And sure enough, Graziella earned tenure after her fellowship.

So there it is, friends. Sign up for a Dartmouth Alumni College vacation. You can meet you classmates, study history, art, religion and architecture, drink red wine and reaffirm once again what a great program the '62 faculty fellowship is!

11 Sunset Road, Salem, MA01970; (978) 744-0655 (fax); rjhannah@massmed.org

REUNION June 10-13 2002