No Smoking!

In 1964, medical students smoked cigarettes in the main lecture hall of the medical school during lectures, a practice both unhealthy and annoying. Having dealt with rules and bureaucracy in the Navy, I decided to take action using the rule, “If it ain’t forbidden, do it.” I put up official-looking no smoking signs on each side of the proscenium arch of the auditorium. The next morning, the awesome Dr. Mountcastle was speaking when a student in the front row lit up. Without a word, Dr. Mountcastle tapped his long wooden pointer on the student’s arm desk and then pointed at the sign. That forever ended smoking during lectures.

James R. Merikangas, M.D. ’69

Bethesda, Maryland

He Sold His Blood

I was a student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and graduated in 1970. Although every year I received a full-tuition scholarship and a loan from the university, and lived frugally, in my first year, I extrapolated my bank balance, and by March, it was at zero.

I had been selling my blood every eight weeks for $25 per unit but needed extra funds until I began a summer research job in late May in Kingston, Ontario.

Although I had an A.B. magna cum laude from Princeton University, I could not find a single bank manager in Baltimore who would lend me $300 based on my own signature. I eventually found a junior faculty member who kindly countersigned my promissory note—a somewhat humiliating experience.

I originally intended to remain in the United States, but because of the trauma of the Martin Luther King Jr. riots in April 1968 and the fact that I married a Canadian woman, I returned to my country of birth.

I sincerely applaud Michael Bloomberg for a generous donation [“Bloomberg donates ‘unprecedented’ $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins”/AP] that will hopefully prevent future indigent Hopkins students from repeating my personal experience.

While Michael Bloomberg’s gift is focused on undergraduates and financial aid as a key for access, raising funds to support graduate students remains a top priority for Johns Hopkins. In the recently concluded Rising to the Challenge campaign, some $377 million was raised for graduate scholarships and fellowships. —Editor

Charles S. Shaver, M.D.

Ottawa, Ontario

No Smoking!

In 1964, medical students smoked cigarettes in the main lecture hall of the medical school during lectures, a practice both unhealthy and annoying. Having dealt with rules and bureaucracy in the Navy, I decided to take action using the rule, “If it ain’t forbidden, do it.” I put up official-looking no smoking signs on each side of the proscenium arch of the auditorium. The next morning, the awesome Dr. Mountcastle was speaking when a student in the front row lit up. Without a word, Dr. Mountcastle tapped his long wooden pointer on the student’s arm desk and then pointed at the sign. That forever ended smoking during lectures.

James R. Merikangas, M.D. ’69

Bethesda, Maryland

He Sold His Blood

I was a student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and graduated in 1970. Although every year I received a full-tuition scholarship and a loan from the university, and lived frugally, in my first year, I extrapolated my bank balance, and by March, it was at zero.

I had been selling my blood every eight weeks for $25 per unit but needed extra funds until I began a summer research job in late May in Kingston, Ontario.

Although I had an A.B. magna cum laude from Princeton University, I could not find a single bank manager in Baltimore who would lend me $300 based on my own signature. I eventually found a junior faculty member who kindly countersigned my promissory note—a somewhat humiliating experience.

I originally intended to remain in the United States, but because of the trauma of the Martin Luther King Jr. riots in April 1968 and the fact that I married a Canadian woman, I returned to my country of birth.

I sincerely applaud Michael Bloomberg for a generous donation [“Bloomberg donates ‘unprecedented’ $1.8 billion to Johns Hopkins”/AP] that will hopefully prevent future indigent Hopkins students from repeating my personal experience.

While Michael Bloomberg’s gift is focused on undergraduates and financial aid as a key for access, raising funds to support graduate students remains a top priority for Johns Hopkins. In the recently concluded Rising to the Challenge campaign, some $377 million was raised for graduate scholarships and fellowships. —Editor

Charles S. Shaver, M.D.

Ottawa, Ontario