Eric Harvey Prosnitz, MD – 50th Reunion Essay

Eric Harvey Prosnitz, MD

3540 East Via Colonia Del Sol

Tucson, Arizona 85718

godnavi@aol.com

520-615-0911

Spouse(s): Kathi Willis

Child(ren): Debra, Beth

Education: University of Southern California School of Medicine, MD 1973. University of Iowa College of Medicine, Internship and Residency (internal medicine) 1973–1975, Fellowship (nephrology, hypertension, and fluid and electrolyte metabolism 1975–1978

National Service: US Public Health Service researcher at National Institutes of Health 1971

Career: Faculty, University of Arizona College of Medicine. Private practice, Tucson, Arizona

Avocations: reading, golf, poker, pumping iron, following E.T. Marlatt’s advice.

College: Silliman

I was lucky. Loving parents, great teachers, good friends, and good health. I could dream, and I could pursue my dreams.

James Cooke Brown received his doctorate in sociology, mathematical statistics, and philosophy from the University of Minnesota in 1952. He then invented the board game, CAREERS, for Parker Brothers. Sometimes, on rainy days, my friends and I would play CAREERS. At the outset, each player had to create a “secret success formula”. How many stars (fame), dollars (fortune), and hearts (happiness) did we want to achieve in our lives? Invariably, my secret success formula was 33 1/3% for each. I guess I wanted something of everything.

Did you have a secret success formula when you were a boy?

Outside our homes, we boys just had fun. Riding our bikes everywhere. Cliff climbing. Football, basketball, baseball in the local park. Stickball in the school yard. Back home after a hard day of play, I was a real bookworm. I loved to read, and my dictionary was my wingman.

In sixth grade, I had a secret love for a sweet girl named Bobbi. I never had the courage to tell her. When I was thirteen, Bobbi gave me a set of miniature dictionaries (French–English, German–English, Italian–English, Spanish–English). To this day, they sit within easy reach in my family room.

My father, born in 1916, wanted to be a lawyer. He attended the University of Alabama during the Great Depression. Despite working in a coal mine to pay for tuition and room and board, he couldn’t make ends meet and had to drop out. When I was fourteen, he said to me “I don’t care if you become a garbageman, but I would like you to go to college.” Every night, whatever change he had in his pocket, he put into piggy banks for me and my younger brother—for college.

While in high school, I found some information in the guidance office about Yale.

The architecture. The massive library. The Old Campus. The Residential Colleges. Payne Whitney Gym. WOW!!

Unlike the Paris of Dickens, Yale was often the best of times, never the worst of times. Some random recollections:

Freshman year. First lecture. Psych 10a. Writ large on the blackboard: OMNE ANIMAL POST COITUM TRISTE EST. Well, you’re not in high school anymore, Eric.

Is mathematics the universal language? Maybe. My calculus instructor (a grad student) spoke Chinese. Almost no English. I stopped going to class. Does God exist? Maybe. I passed my calculus final.

English 29 seminar—taught by Bart Giamatti. More smoke in that room than in the bar where Joe Diffie sang “prop me up beside the jukebox when I die”

How to get to Organic Chemistry Lab? Call 1­800­Dante. Ask for Virgil. Get off at the Fifth Circle.

Elias Clark—Professor of Law and Master of Silliman College. A gentleman and scholar. A wonderful man with a heart of gold.

To all of my Yale roommates, friends, and acquaintances, thank you for our times together.

Before returning for our 50th, I will take CAREERS out of the closet and play it again for the first time in almost 60 years. My secret formula for success now? 100% hearts. How about you?