Class Notes

1975

Dr. Thomas Gray was profiled in a Visalia Times Delta, (Visalia, Calif.) article about his 12 years working at Kaweah Delta District Hospital’s emergency department, where he is chief of emergency medicine. Dr. Gray did his postgraduate training in Tucson, Ariz., and directed a hypertension diabetes clinic for a decade at Sacred Heart Hospital in Hanford.

1976

Dr. Nancy W. Dickey is the newest trustee elected to the Scott & White Hospital Foundation. Dr. Dickey, president of The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center and vice chancellor for health affairs for the A&M System, was elected to a fouryear term. Dr. Dickey, who assumed the health science center presidency in January 2002, is past president of the American Medical Association (1998-99) and the founding program director of the Family Practice Residency of the Brazos Valley. She is also professor of Family and Community Medicine at the A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine.

1978

Dr. Christopher W. Conner will be starting a new fellowship in July on Moh’s surgery, which will complement his training in general, cardiovascular, and plastic surgery. “I think this will make me one of the first people to train in four decades (70s, 80s, 90s, and now 00s),” he writes, “proving only that some people are harder to train than others. He reports that his family is doing well, with his daughter, Katie, working for Sen. Max Baucus from Montana then attending law school in the fall, and son Christopher will start studying chemical engineering at Rice University this fall. “My wife Susan shudders every time I walk in and announce, ‘Guess what I’ve been thinking.’” He encourages former classmates to look him up in Dallas.

Dr. Stephen O. Heard recently was named chair of anesthesiology at UMass Memorial Medical Center and the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Heard, formerly executive vice chair of the department, served as interim chair since July 2002. Dr. Heard’s clinical interests include sepsis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, catheter-related bloodstream infections, and the monitoring of critically ill patients. Dr. Heard joined UMass Medical School as assistant professor and UMass Memorial Medical Center as associate director of the Surgical

Intensive Care Unit and director of the Division of Critical Care Medicine. He was promoted to associate professor in 1990, professor in 1996, vice chair in 1998, and executive vice chair in 2001. President-elect of the Massachusetts Society of Anesthesiologists, he is also treasurer of the American Society of Critical Care Anesthesiologists. He was program co-chair of the 2003 Annual Congress of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the largest multidisciplinary organization devoted to the practice of critical care. He has written more than 70 articles and chapters in the area of critical care medicine and anesthesiology.

1984

Dr. Robert Hromas, a nationally recognized expert in leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma, recently was named associate director for clinical research at the University of New Mexico Cancer Research and Treatment Center. Dr. Hromas also is a professor of medicine and chief of the Hematology/Oncology Division at the UNM School of Medicine. Before coming to New Mexico, Dr. Hromas was deputy director of the Indiana University Cancer Center and a professor of medicine, genetics, and biochemistry at Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis. Among

the numerous honors Dr. Hromas has received for teaching are the Indiana University Board of Trustees Outstanding Teacher Award and the Indiana Humanism in Medical Education Award. His medical research awards include the Stohlman Scholar Award from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and election to the American Society of Clinical Investigation, an honor society of physician investigators. He currently serves as chair of the American Cancer Society’s Leukemia and Immunology Review Group and was selected the graduation speaker for this year’s medical school class at Indiana University.

1985

Dr. Richard C. Naftalis was elected president of the Texas Association of Neurological Surgeons. He continues to practice general neurological surgery at Medical City Dallas and has a special interest in complex neck and back surgery, the surgical management of epilepsy and brain tumors. He and his wife, Elizabeth, ’86, who is a surgical oncologist at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, have three children ages 11, 9, and 6.

1989

Dr. J. Arturo Bonilla practices pediatric otolaryngology in private practice in San Antonio. He and his wife, Tara, have three sons: Andres, Cristian, and Marco, who was born March 27, 2003.

Dr. Marie Holman Fitzgerald reports that she is an allergist in Flower Mound, Texas, and is married to Dr. Steve Fitzgerald. The Fitzgeralds have three children, Nancy, 6; Ben, 4; and Mark, 1.

Dr. William H. Moore and his wife, Susie, welcomed their second daughter, Juliet, Nov. 26, 2002. She joins Caroline, 9. “We are quite blessed!” he writes. He has been with Pediatric Associates in Dallas for 11 years and reports that he is still running.

Dr. Victor Franz Zurita and his wife, Martha, have been living in the San Antonio, Texas, area now for five years and write that they enjoy it very much with their three children. “We are planning to celebrate our 21 years of marriage in Europe with the kids this summer,” he reports. Their children are ages 8, 12, and 14. He also reports that his practice of GI has grown and is doing well. Any former classmates are welcome to reach him at zuritafranz@hotmail.com.

1991

Dr. Burke Kealey was recognized by the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) for his contributions to clinical excellence in the field of hospital medicine with the Clinical Excellence Award. SHM, formerly the National Association of Inpatient Physicians, is the premier U.S. medical society representing hospitalists. Dr. Kealey is chief of professional services, hospital medicine, at Regions Hospital in Bloomington, Minnesota, and a member of

HealthPartners Medical Group there. He has been a hospitalist at Regions since 1997, when he was part of the original team that helped develop and refine the innovative hospitalist program there.

1994

Dr. Wesley Dennis was married to Dr. Melanie Sattler July 26, 2003. She has a Ph.D. in environmental engineering and is an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Arlington. They were married in Arlington, Texas. Dr. Dennis is in private practice with Neurology Associates of Arlington.

1996

Dr. Benjamin Bassichis, director of the Advanced Facial Plastic Surgery Center in Dallas, recently was awarded the John Orlando Roe Award at the 2003 Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery meeting in Orlando, Fla. The Roe Award is presented each year to an American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Fellow who submits the best clinical research paper written during their fellowship year. Dr. Bassichis’ research paper, “The Use of a Non-Ablative, Radiofrequency Device to Rejuvenate the

Upper One-Third of the Face,” investigated a new technique for facial rejuvenation without undergoing a surgical procedure. In addition to the award, Dr. Bassichis’ research was chosen as a headline platform presentation at the annual meeting. Dr. Bassichis currently serves as a clinical assistant professor at The University of Texas-Southwestern Medical School.

1997

Dr. Tracy Scheller- Oaten and her husband, David, announce the birth of their daughter, Madison Olivia, who was born April 28, 2003, in New York City. Dr. Peter S. Doss writes that he is relocating to Cambridge for a one-year fellowship in vascular and interventional radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital, having just finished his radiology residency.

1999

Dr. Robin Lidiak, R, married James Womack, M.D., May 31, 2003, in Houston. Robin is enjoying private practice with Albuquerque Ob-Gyn Specialists.

2000

Dr. Michael Hambrick announces the birth of his third child, Caleb Lloyd Hambrick, who was born Nov. 20, 2003, weighing 6 lbs., 2 oz. Dr. Hambrick is employed at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler, Texas.

Lives Lived

Dr. Joseph F. Hanna, F ’83, and his wife, Nouhad, died in a helicopter accident in the Grand Canyon in September 20, 2003. Hanna, of Huntington, West Virginia, graduated from the French Medical School of St. Joseph University in Beirut in 1976. He did his residency in family practice and internal medicine at Texas Tech University’s Health Science Centers in El Paso from 1977 to 1980 and practiced as a full-time emergency room physician in El Paso for a year. He studied under a cardiology fellowship at the University of Texas in Houston from 1981 to 1983. They are survived by their sons, Afif and William.

Dr. Mary H. Wilson, R ’79, of Abilene, Texas, died Aug. 11, 2003.