Robert C. Cleaveland – 50th Reunion Essay

Robert C. Cleaveland

Wideystrasse 25

Witten, Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine Westphalia) D-58452, Germany

Bob.Cleaveland@t-online.de

+49-172-6326190

Education: Yale B.S. Physics 1969 , Unviversity of Witten/Herdecke, Germany, M.D. 1990

Career: Programmer AS&E Cambridge (NASA) and Harvard-Smithsonian-Observatory 1970-1974; Camphill Special Schools, Glenmoore, Pa. 1974-1977; Medical School, Germany 1983 – 1990; Physician since 1990 in Radiology, Neuroradiology, Pediatric Radiology

Avocations: Sailing in Croatia (my ship the “PAROLI”, Beneateau Oceanis 370, 1990, 36 foot)

College: Pierson

I guess it’s best to begin where our 25th Year Class Book left off in 1994. Recapping: came to Europe in 1977 to deepen German language skills, first in Switzerland and since 1979 in Germany. Been there ever since. Managed the computer and did business programming in Bad Boll, Germany, from 1979 until 1983 (at WALA Heilmittel–Dr. Hauschka, natural homeopathic medicines and cosmetics). Then the big accident on Friday the 13th of July 1979: while riding a moped, yours truly was hit by a drunken driver on a dark rainy night and had his left leg mashed from top to bottom. Five operations over three and a half bionic years with lots of hospital and three surgical osteosynthesis plates (one in the femur, two in the tibia), one osteosynthesis rod (“intramedullary nail” in the fibula) and 33 surgical screws. Then a big surprise: an admission to medical school in Germany’s first private University in Witten/Herdecke! First job after medical school was three years’ residency in neurosurgery. After that a jump to radiology (because of physics at Yale of course!) with three years neuroradiology at the University Clinic of Essen, Germany and then seven years in three different private radiologist offices in the Ruhr-Valley area of Germany. Then four years as “Oberarzt” (= attending physician) in radiology in a large Catholic hospital in Essen (CT, MRI, fluoroscopy and the rest of conventional radiology). In the 11 years since 1997, pediatric radiology in a large Catholic children’s clinic (Vestic Children’s Clinic in Datteln, Germany) with lots of ultrasound and MRI.

Why have I stayed in Germany? I had my medical degree and specialist’s certification as a radiologist here and had good jobs always as well. I would have had to take tons of (bothersome) tests to qualify in the USA and then start again at the bottom, not knowing anybody in the profession, if I were to come “home.” I had no more family in the U.S., my parents having passed away by 1992 and my brother tragically killed in an accident in Montana on New Year’s Day 1999. So as years went by, I wound up staying in Germany with lots and lots of very good friends, even though the blonde German nurse with the big pearly white smile and the “legs that go on for miles and miles,” who wanted me back in 1992, had decided later that she didn’t want me.

I have had to do without supervision in life from a “better-half” and a live-in “personal coach and trainer.” Tons of valuable advice have failed me. Moreover, I haven’t had any children for whom to be responsible and for whom always to be a positive role model. I’ve had “Narrenfreiheit” (a “jester’s license”) to do and be whatever I like.

That has included buying (in 1991) a now paid-up house in Witten, Germany (see photos), and having a small sailing yacht (36-foot sloop) in Croatia on the Island of Cres since 2006 (see photo). Sailing summers the sun-kissed Croatian archipelago has been doing good things for me for the past 12 years. I have not quite gotten to retiring yet fully: I still work three part-time jobs in radiology, altogether now about 45 hours a week. I still manage, however, to take three vacations in Croatia on my ship every year, each for three weeks. You can do that in Germany, where everybody over 30 has by law six weeks of yearly paid vacation. The other three weeks are the compensation for all my overtime hours in the clinic.

For anyone who wants to come to Germany to visit (and maybe even come along to Croatia, too), just send me an e-mail and we’ll see what we can do. My old friend and physician colleague, Gov. Dr. Howard Dean M.D., (Yale 1972, Pierson), was here last October 2017 and we traveled together for a week as he gave a lecture tour about American and World Politics in Cologne, Dusseldorf, Mainz and Berlin. In Mainz, Howard even met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and told her “she’s the one who has to represent democracy in the world today, because our President Donald Trump isn’t capable to do that.” How’s that!