In addition to my duties as a Radiology Chairman, Program Director and Graduate Medical Education Dean, I have a second career or rather a hobby in overdrive. I am a card-carrying geographer. I earned two master’s degrees at Columbia University, attending class in my afternoon off and in the evening away from my radiology day job. Part of the tuition was paid for by the G.I. Bill as a benefit I received from serving as a radiologist with the 101st Airborne Division at the tail end of the Vietnam era.

As I gained some facility in geography I suggested to the department head that I could teach a course in Medical Geography bringing together my knowledge in both disciplines. He accepted and for 15 years I taught the course to a heterogeneous assemblage of undergraduates, MPH students, matriculates in the School of General Studies and students from the Schools of Journalism and Architecture. It was an enriching experience which only ended when my duties here at New Jersey Medical School got too hectic.