More than half of the Stony Brook University School of Medicine Class of 1975 will return to campus on October 24 to commemorate their 40th Anniversary. This unique group of Stony Brook pioneers was part of a three-year program and a tight-knit incoming cohort of 19 members who became the second class in history to graduate from the School of Medicine.
The class began their didactic training in temporary buildings, what’s now known as the South Campus, lacking access to Stony Brook University Hospital for their clinical rotations as hospital construction would not be complete until 1980. Despite being scattered across Long Island for their clinical years at locations such as Bay Shore, Northport VA, LIJ and Nassau Medical Center, the class felt a closeness that resonates to this day. They credit outstanding faculty members such as Marvin Kuschner, MD; Len Meiselas, MD; Lawrence Liebowitz, MD; and Fred Miller, MD, for their success.
Many of the young faculty members were “outstanding, compassionate teachers and spent enormous amounts of time with us,” said class member Anne H. Remmes, MD ’75, a neurologist, who recently retired from practicing in New York City.
The Class of 1975 has lost a few members, some have retired and some continue to practice, while others have flourished in their research. Several members of the class followed the advice of their faculty to become family physicians and still practice today.
Now, 40 years later, faculty continue to encourage their students to become family physicians, and many students choose to follow in the footsteps of the classes who came before them. Just this past March, at the School of Medicine’s Match Day, approximately one-third of the Class of 2015 were matched in primary care specialties, which include pediatrics, internal medicine and family medicine.
Dr. Remmes has not been back since she graduated. No doubt she’ll notice a few changes when she returns this fall. But, she cannot wait to reconnect with her peers and witness the remarkable transformations taking place at Stony Brook Medicine today.
