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I
was born in San Francisco in 1947 at UCSF Moffet Hospital, but we
immediately moved to Pleasant Hill, where I graduated from the eighth
grade at Queen of All Saints in Concord.
I only lasted one year at St. Joseph's, but even that one year gave me a special bond with all of you which I prize highly, and feel privileged to be involved with such good and charismatic people, as indicated by the stories in this recent Newsletter. After leaving the seminary in '62, we moved to Alameda where I spent three years at Alameda High and enjoyed being on the swim team. My last swim race at College level was against Mark Spitz, who was an upstart at that time, but nevertheless beat me. Went to Cal Berkeley where I earned a BA in Political Science, and then after wondering what I was going to do with it, I stayed around to get my MS in Physiology. After that one memorable year of Latin at St. Joes, I kept taking Latin all the way through high school and  part of
college, for a total of six years. I was getting to be conversational
with Latina lingua when I stopped!My first job was in biochemistry at Pacific Medical Center on Clay and Webtser in San Francisco, working on the structural determination of alpa - one - antitrypsin, which is an enzyme made by a gene, and whose possible resultant lack of the proper form, results in five percent of emphysema diagnoses, even at an early age, even if non smoker. I then went to Stanford Hospital where I worked in Pulmonary Physiology and was involved the lung transplant program working on the physiology and practical function of the transplanted lung. In my thirty years there, I also worked on a number of disease states such as interstitial lung disease and pulmonary hypertension, and was privileged to be involved in associated research. I know you guys don't have to be reminded to take this Covid Virus seriously, as it can cause significant and permanent lung and other organ cellular damage. Retiring in 2015, I live in Montara with my wife of 41 years, Kathy. For those of you who might not know, Montara is just North of Half Moon Bay, and just South of the Devil's Slide Tunnel. We have a thirty five foot sailboat, which we keep at the Richmond Yacht Club, and we enjoy trying to spend time with and babysit our two young granddaughters, during these difficult times. We had been set to go on our first cruise in the middle of this month, July, but it was cancelled. We hope to try again for that cruise for next year. I enjoy being a member of the St. Joseph/St. Patricks Alumni Board of Directors, and being, for now, the Editor of the Newsletter. |
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