Frank Laurren Hart – 50th Reunion Essay

Frank Laurren Hart

46 Sparwheel Lane

Hilton Head Island, SC 29926

veryoldfriends@hotmail.com

843-384-4604

Spouse(s): Susanne, (12 years as of 2018)

Child(ren): Prescott L Hart (1982) Andrea H. Hart (1985)

Education: Yale BA 1969, University of Oklahoma MD 1973

National Service: U.S. Army Reserve, 1974-1976

Career: Physician (Internist)

College: Timothy Dwight

After graduation and a two-month motorcycle trip to Europe in the summer of 1969. I completed medical school in 1973 and a straight medicine internal medicine internship at the University of Oklahoma in 1974 and went on active duty in the US Army Reserve as a medical officer for two years, serving about five months at Brook Army Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, then a year in Korea with the 2nd Infantry Division receiving an Army Commendation Medal because the VD incidence went from 16,000 to 15,000 cases per year for the 15,000 men in the division under my watch as a preventative medical officer. Then it was back to OKC for the two remaining years of my residency at the University of Oklahoma. I joined the Foreign Service as a Regional Medical Officer and served two years as the American embassy doctor in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and three years as the same in Jakarta, Indonesia, then spent a year at the State Department before resigning and starting a practice in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. I acquired a wife while in Saudi and a son planning to move to Panama soon in order to raise timber, surf and spearfish. My daughter is a lawyer (I’ve forgiven her) and working for the Utilities Commission in New Jersey with a long-term plan of moving to Colorado. We moved to Hilton Head in 1984 and divorced after 25 years of marriage–and married a perfect match in 2006. I volunteer one morning a week at a free clinic for the indigent here on the Island for an outfit called “Volunteers in Medicine.”

My politics haven’t changed that much from the kid from rural Oklahoma who matriculated to Yale in 1969 with a Bill Buckley type of conservatism. Of living conservatives, I suppose John Bolton and Nikki Haley are most closely aligned to my political thought.

My wife and I are addicted to the 6:00 p.m. news East Coast time. My wife and I live alone with two dogs, one an 85-pound Shepherd/Huskie mix and one a 135-pound Lab/Great Pyrenees (really more of a pony than a dog). Our leisure time is spent playing golf, bridge, reading (I like crime and adventure with about four serious biographies or histories a year). I’m not sure why, but I still read a lot of internal medicine medical literature. We’re traveling more now that I’m retired but my wife (who is seven years younger than I—what can I say—I like younger women) will fully retire only in two more years when we plan to spend the four months of miserably hot summer here in the Low Country some place in North America where summers are cool. We spent two weeks in Denmark last summer (my wife is a Dane, having emigrated to Canada with her family when she was six years old and having become a naturalized American citizen over 20 years ago), and this spring we will be tourists for a fortnight in Israel, hopefully before the Persians nuke them.

My old roomies will tell you I’m not very philosophical. I’m grateful that my Creator made my life possible and I am still trying to figure out my purpose here on Earth. Compared to most of humanity, Providence has given me a minimally stressful life which I most appreciate without any understanding of why such is the circumstance. I do a decent job of respecting others and hope that others will treat me with courtesy, especially when we disagree. I wish all of my fellow citizens a good relationship with God and hope they adhere to a strict code of behavior based on near universal principles of acceptable conduct as formulated by the individual. I believe the vast majority of folks know in their hearts what is correct behavior but too often fail to comply with their own code of conduct.

I am looking forward to the 50th. I plan to be there. “Boola Boola”!