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

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HISTORY OF THE CLASS OF 1962 JOHN CLARK Van PELT HISTORIAN “The time hai come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things: Of shoes and ships and sealing wax, Of cabbages and kings; And why the sea is boiling hot. And whether pigs hare wings.” —Lewis Carroll On the morning of 6 September 1958, the time had indeed come for 135 would-be physicians, entering their Freshman year at Temple University School of Medicine, to talk of many things — things as unrelated as cabbages and kings, as improbable as flying pigs, as foreign as boiling seas — homely things, mysterious things, comic things, tragic things. Medicine is an old and noble profession, and is, as such, endowed, for better or for worse, with many old and noble traditions. Not the least of these, although there are more admirable examples, is that the study and comprehension of this science is reputed by the laity to be almost impossible. It is safe to say that the average medical student, fresh out of college, arrives for his first class equipped with a vague conglomeration of opinions, resolves, half-truths and misinformation unparalleled by the novitiates of any other profession. Our class was no different from any other in this respect. A battery of department heads were on hand to welcome us briefly, presided over by the ubiquitous, mysterious and acerb personage of ‘Doctor Temple’ himself, ‘Parky,’ a red-faced, white-haired seer supported by the lecturn in Erny Amphitheatre. To most of us, the parading Olympians were physician-ideals, somewhat god-like characters of enormous attainment and competence. The entering Freshman is a complex of idealism and fear: fear of the unknown and fear of personal inadequacy Whether Dr. X could speak publicly or not. or whether he was known outside North Philadelphia