Donald Humphrey Martin – 50th Reunion Essay

Donald Humphrey Martin

15644 Dream Sky Way

Nevada City, CA 95959

donmartinmd@yahoo.com

530-478-1474

Spouse(s): Alice Baker Martin, 39 years

Child(ren): Andrew 38, Charles 28

Education: Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, 1979

Career: Secondary school teacher 4 years, Family physician 35 years

Avocations: Hiking, biking, kayaking

College: Timothy Dwight

By the time I graduated I had taken courses in 14 departments, and the courses selected (by luck, guidance from the student course critique, or perhaps some insight on my part) resulted in an incredibly well-rounded education. It was that “liberal education” that President Giamatti identified as the “heart of a civil society” and which doesn’t seem to carry as much value anymore.

But that is what I still carry around today and what has been the major role of Yale in my life. Besides what I believe is crucial (for a citizen of such a civil society) knowledge in such areas as economics, political science, psychology, and history, I gained special insights from American intellectual courses by Hall and Howe, Chinese history from Spence, Law in American Society by Black, and especially The Individual in American Society by Charles Reich (I wish he had been right about the “greening of America”).

After four years as an instructor in history at the secondary school level, I switched to medicine and completed a residency in the then-new field of family medicine. In my early years, I particularly enjoyed pediatrics and behavioral/psych issues as well as the overarching role of educator. In the last decade, I practiced solely geriatric medicine with an emphasis on nursing home, palliative, and end of life care.

These years as a physician leave me now with a final realization that most people are basically good, that we are all much more alike than not, that many individuals are indeed noble, that there is no fairness or justice in it all, and that the only thing that matters are relationships. For me I have been most fortunate to have had a strong, loving wife who is also a superb mother of two sons who are very fine people and give me great joy.

I never had the dreams and therefore the motivation and drive to change the world and become renowned and a national figure, so I can only blame myself when with envy I do read of classmates and other Yalies who win Pulitzer prizes, work on Broadway or in Hollywood, and serve in the highest government, diplomatic, or NGO positions. However, I would guess that when arriving, in a freshman address, or leaving, at commencement, someone surely said you can be anything you want. I am afraid they were right.