Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine - Synapsis Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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Commencement for the Class of 195 6 is an exciting occasion. It is time for congratulations — and well-deserved they are — on the assumption of the long-sought role of doctor, and for the beginning of the rewards which only he who has helped the ill back to health can know. The relationship of a graduate to his professional school is different from that of graduates of other types of institu- tions. In effect, a doctor can never leave his college. In the first wild break into freedom after four years of vigorous discipline some try to sever the tie. But it can ' t be done. There may be no overt relationship and negative — often un- happy — things are sometimes said or done. The tie cannot be severed. Whether he will or no the doctor ' s career will be affected not only by his training but also by the way his col- lege progresses and develops after he has been graduated. The Class of 1956 has as a group made a good record. P.C.O. looks forward to watching the class fulfill the promise which its undergraduate years have made manifest. P.C.O. confidently expects the Class of 19 56 to make a real contribu- tion to its chosen profession. This class has shown an increas- ing solidarity around and insight into the osteopathic approach to healing and health care. P.C.O. knows that the Class of 19 5 6 — along with all other classes — expects it to fulfill the promise which has made its history and which is generated by the dynamics of the philosophy of the osteopathic concept on which the college was founded. P.C.O. pledges itself to this task. In making this pledge P.C.O. is conscious of the togetherness which binds it to its graduates. Each member of the Class of 1956 his left part of himself here and he takes away part of the college. From this togetherness each gains strength and in this strength lies the promise of the fulfillment of the destiny of P.C.O. and of each doctor who calls her Alma Mater. ( Ummiskaim Sherwood R. Mercer THOMAS M. ROWLAND, JR., B.S. Director of Admissions and Registrar MARGUERITE ARCHER Assistant Registrar JOHN DE ANGELIS, B.C.S., M.C.S., C.P.A. ContptroUer -:}9f k .dl. ' v

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DR WILLIAM E. BRANDT President, ' Philadelphia College College of Osteopathy In years to come, this volume will stand on the shelves of every loyal son of PCO, Class of 1956, and hundreds of friends will see it and leaf through its pages. I know the editors have labored diligently to present in these pages a faithful record of the College as it stands, Anno Domini 1956, just past mid-century, approaching the cen- tennial of osteopathic foundation in the field of health, and with a wide vista opening up ahead. The pictures that are fresh and colorful to us today will then have taken on the glamour of the past and the aura of antiquity. I can speak from the other end of the scale, look- ing back nearly 50 years to my own year book in High School and College, and later PCO. When the work of the editors is well done, as herein, the backward glance into the past is as inspiring as the vistas which now open up ahead for the graduates of this year. Confucius said that, Man who looks back sees his mis- takes piled up like mountains. It is, therefore, not too healthy to be looking backward as an habitual procedure. It is healthy, however, to look back and assay the degree of progress made in the intervening years. It is healthy to look back and to see in the records of the past the fundamental strength that served as the springboard for the advances in the intervening years. It is healthy to draw from the records of the past the inspira- tion which caused this book to be assembled and which imbued the hearts and minds of the editorial staff and the whole class in collaboration. Mens et Manus, as our College seal puts it, the hand with the mind to guide it, does the work of osteopathic assist- ance to the body seeking health and recovery. Mind and heart and hand went to the making of this book. In recommending it to you, be you senior just graduating, or be you friend of the College interested in its output annually of trained physi- cians, I ask you to keep it and treasure it, and in the years to come check back at what is here unfolded to you and what the record of the intervening years has set down as the work and the progress contributed by these the members of the Class of 1956. PCO has had many great graduates. Its classes at the commencement season rally in greater or less numbers to the reunion bugle call of the Alumni Association. I know that when the Class of 1956 answers that call in the years to come, each member will bring back with him the treasures that he finds in his own book of memories, refreshed by the depiction of college scenes and college personalities in this the 1956 Synapsis. To the class, we of the administration, the Dean, Regis- trar Rowland, the Faculty as a whole, extends its heartiest good wishes and its complete confidence that the record of the class in its work in the world will bring to fruition and enrich the progress of the osteopathic profession wherever its mem- bers work. Four years ago they were gathered together, strangers to each other, from many States and many college campuses. As they step out the doors of the College today, they are unified by that bond that can come only to a band of men when they have worked together shoulder to shoulder through the most vital four years of their educational life. William E. Brandt H. WALTER EVANS Board Secretary DR. THEODORE W. STEIGLER Director of Clinics DR. NICHOLAS D. TRETTA Student Health Physician • . s

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i!iic €ai! I do hereby affirm my loyalty to the profession I am about to enter. I will be mindful always of my great responsibility to preserve the health and life of my patients, to retain their confidence and respect, both as a physician and a friend who will guard their secrets with scrupulous honor and fidelity, to perform faithfully my professional duties, to employ only those recognized methods of treatment consistent with good judgment and with my skill and ability, keeping in mind always nature ' s laws and the body ' s inherent capacity for recovery. I will be ever vigilant in aiding the general welfare of the community, sustaining its laws and institutions, not engaging in those practices which will in any way bring shame or discredit upon myself or my profession. I will give no deadly drugs to any, though it be asked of me. I will endeavor to work in accord with my colleagues in a spirit of progressive cooperation and never by word or by act cast imputations upon them or their rightful practices. I will look with respect and esteem upon all those who have taught me my art. To my college, I will be loyal and strive always for its best and for the interests of the students who will come after me. I will be ever alert to and adhere to and develop the princ- iples of Osteopathy as taught by Andrew Taylor Still.