Temple University School of Medicine - Skull Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

Page 14 text:

Robert L. Johnson Now that you ore about to become a physician, I assume you will strive to be one of the best. Your success will be the result of a great many factors. First of all, your parents planned and sacrificed, and you came through because of their faith. In another sense. Temple, too. had faith. It selected you from many and made available to you a great faculty and every facility for study. Then it was the United States Government and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. —America started you on a medical career in order to meet a military need, and Pennsylvania invested in your education to serve the health of your community in times of peace. Finally, it was you: you surrendered pleasures for work and study: you gained skill and knowledge in the only way it can be had.—the hard way. And now, you will devote your abilities to those whose lives you will bring into being and to those whose lives you will prolong. None can have a higher calling. ROBERT L. JOHNSON 8

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INTRODUCTION Obstetrics was the service where we first felt certain that we were approaching that long anticipated goal. Here at last, we had our own responsibilities, and on the outside service, we had our first glimpse of private practice. This was a gigantic step from those first fragrant days in the anatomy lab, where Dr. Huber and his colleagues taught us those many fundamental concepts and functional components. Our early rosy glow was soon obscured by the grey fog of too-numerous cigarettes as we congregated in worried groups, to fathom the many mysteries. The second and third years with their numerous labs and innumerable lectures left us quite numb and full of only partially assimilated facts. Not until the fourth year, when we returned, many of us in civilian clothing for the first time in med school, did we routinely see patients. We learned how to handle emergencies, and gradually developed a little self-confidence. And, most important, we began to realize how much was yet to be learned, and that we must remain students throughout the rest of our careers.

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■■ William N. Parkinson To the Class of 1947: You graduate into a world that is in a state of confusion, perhaps a disintegrating society. Possibly the confusions and disorders of today will introduce a period of fresh opportunities for young physicians. Time changes things and the individual practice of medicine must change too. Theoretically, medical service is available for rich and poor alike. Theoretically, all share equally in the protection that modern medical science affords, but they do not. There is enough medical knowledge for all—to bestow it freely cannot exhaust it. All that is required are the human channels through which it may flow to those who need it. Study the problem of the distribution of medical care. You have youth (age becomes conservative if not reactionary) keep an open mind so that you may adapt yourselves to new conditions. May I extend my best wishes for your happiness and your success througout life. Sincerely. WILLIAM N. PARKINSON