Stephen Bittner – 50th Reunion Essay

Stephen Bittner

111 Piedmont Road

Columbus, OH 43214

sjbitt99@yahoo.com

614-772-4305

Spouse(s): Marcia Playe (1966-2006); Rachel Alexander (2009-present)

Child(ren): Darcey, 1973; Jake, 1975

Grandchild(ren): Margot Crawford (2006); Malcolm Crawford (2008); Piper Bittner (2007); Johnny Bittner (2010)

Education: University of Chicago School of Medicine, 1973

Career: Pediatrician for 1973-1982; Psychiatrist 1982 to present

Avocations: Reading, biking, volunteering

College: Saybrook

Greetings Gentleman Oldsters,

Amazingly, the earth will have spun 26,360 times from my birth to the 50th reunion, assuming I make it. All those days of getting up, getting dressed and trying to be conscious. And yet, someone said, you only get to make three or four big choices in your life, and the rest is luck and karma. Yale was my First Big Decision. My father was a devout Midwesterner and didn’t want me to go to the land of the Great Eastern Cabal. I don’t know if he ever forgave me for going, but to his credit he didn’t try to stop me. The Second Big One was to give up aspirations of being an academic. It was pretty hard to let go of the plan, but I found that I couldn’t do an academic career and still be a decent parent. The Third Big Fork was changing from pediatrics to psychiatry. It turned out well, but it was a little painful to go back for three more years on a resident’s salary with two little kids and a mortgage. And the Fourth involved marriage, maybe a story for another time.

In the switch to psychiatry, I belatedly found my métier. It’s been a profound privilege most of the time to do this work, and probably no other medical subspecialty nowadays allows you to gradually ride into the sunset like I’ve done. The irony of this job, and perhaps most jobs, is that you get better and better at it and then you wake up one day and you’re obsolete. So going along half-speed while I can still use my chops has been a good way to slip-slide away.

I consider myself to have been extremely lucky. No major catastrophes. Two wonderful kids: my daughter a doctor, my son an architect, and four grandchildren, all beautiful and brilliant, just like everyone else’s, or maybe a little more so.

Orthopedically, not so lucky. Still paying the price for high school football, but ever grateful to live in the age of routine joint replacements. And I still love to get out and bike or jogawalk, though somehow the pace gets slower and slower.

And I did get remarried, but that seemed just an easy, natural thing, not a big risky decision. It will be 10 happy years by the time the Old Campus is green again next June.

In recent years I’ve been lucky to meet annually with a bunch of Yale running buddies. Old cross-country guys have formed a team to run the 200-mile Hood to Coast Relay for seven years now, and our old mile relay team, Chuck Hobbs, Larry Kreider and Mark Young ’68 are fast friends. Last year at the Heps we got to limp through a reenactment of our Yale mile relay record, now 50 years old. Sometimes it’s surprising what endures to sustain a life.

So thanks again to Old Yale for being the start of a pretty good ride.

Ave atque vale, everyone.