NEWS

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Craig White, M.D.

In The Origins Right Here in Davidson, I wrote about how the seeds of Davidson Family Medicine were planted while growing up just outside town.

Last week, I wrote about the Davidson College Humanities Professors who shaped how I understood people, ideas, and the world beyond my own experience.

This installment covers the rest of my professors, the ones that I was required to take as a premed student. Little did I know that the professors of those required courses - science, math, economics, and even art - would eventually become more than teachers. They would become friends, colleagues, and, in ways I never anticipated, part of the story that would bring me back to Davidson.

Let’s start with Biology.

David Grant

Cindy Grant

Lessons from Drs. Cindy and David Grant continued paying dividends long after leaving Davidson.

Cindy Grant’s biochemistry class gave me a welcome advantage when I reached medical school. In fact, the science courses in medical school were a breeze thanks to all these great Davidson professors. Cindy was a gifted teacher, and Davidson lost her much too soon, just two years after I graduated.

 David Grant, meanwhile, has become a treasured friend and a mentor to generations of students, not only with his popular courses on campus but also on the North Carolina coast through Davidson's Beaufort Marine Study Program.

He and his lovely wife Pam, who was a force of her own in the Davidson Garden Club and as a revered teacher at Piedmont Middle School, are now retired in Charlotte. Please pay them a visit. Mention a former student or his beloved alma mater, The College of Wooster, and you are likely to be treated to one of David’s wonderfully entertaining stories.

Don Kimmel

Professor Don Kimmel had a contagious enthusiasm for genetics, and you might say he passed that trait along to generations of students. Genetics was the toughest class I took at Davidson, yet Don taught it with such energy and passion that it became one of my favorites.

It was a pleasure to spot Don, before his death, and the ever-youthful Meg enthusiastically cheering on the Wildcats in their matching red-and-black T-shirts. Don’s daughter Charity, my classmate from Davidson Elementary School, clearly ‘inherited’ her father's quick wit, sharp mind, and terrific sense of humor.

Jerry Putnam

Every Davidson premed student knew two things were inevitable: furiously scribbling notes during Dr. Jerry Putman's jam-packed lectures and leaving his anatomy lab smelling faintly of formaldehyde. Between whirlwind mornings in the lecture hall and long afternoons in the dissection lab, we had no idea that those demanding days were shaping the physicians we would eventually become.

Verna Miller Case

Every great department has someone who quietly keeps it on course. For Davidson's Biology Department, that person has long been Verna Case. She was just beginning her career when I arrived at Davidson, and for decades her calm leadership and steadfast support have helped launch generations of future physicians and scientists.

Larry and Jane Cain

Larry Cain proved that the laws of physics extended well beyond the classroom. My final physics course at Davidson was Physics 36 under Larry, who also had an uncanny knack for single-handedly defeating volleyball teams made up of students half his age. Never challenge your physics professor to a volleyball match - especially if that professor is Larry Cain.

Years later, his wife Jane would become part of some of our family's most cherished moments, playing the organ at Davidson College Presbyterian Church for daughter Krista's baptism and many years later during her wedding. We will always be grateful to them both.

Richard "Dick" Bernard

Even future doctors can't diagnose calculus away. Fortunately, Davidson's Math Department made the numbers a little less intimidating. My only math professor was Richard “Dick” Bernard.

Dick and his wife, Martha Key, were two of the kindest people you could ever hope to meet. When we returned to Davidson in 1990, they were the very first neighbors to knock on our door, welcoming us with a plate of Martha Key’s homemade brownies. Dick arrived, as always, with a spring in his step, a walking cane in his hand, and a smile that made you feel instantly at home. He later shared another gift – a painting of the Lawn and Rotunda at the University of Virginia where he had earned his Ph.D. That painting still hangs in our home - a daily reminder of a treasured friendship.

Peter Hess

My registration luck held for nearly four years - until senior year. That's when I ended up with the two things that senior premed students dread the most: Economics 101 and the 8:00 a.m. class.

The problem wasn't Professor Peter Hess - it was the hour on the clock. Despite my best efforts to remain partially awake, Peter somehow managed to teach me everything I know about economics. He still greets me on his daily walks through Davidson with his delightful wife, Boo, so perhaps I was paying more attention than either of us realized.

Russ Warren

Every premed student needs a place to catch his breath, and for me it was Russ Warren's art studio. Between chemistry labs and biology exams, Russ reminded me that medicine isn't just about science - it's also about seeing the world differently. Many afternoons were spent with pen and ink learning the art of negative space, a lesson that turned out to apply as much to life as it did to drawing.

You might have noticed that a discussion of the Chemistry Department is conspicuously absent. I did make a feeble attempt to complete Nick Burnett’s incredibly challenging Analytical Chemistry course as a freshman. But halfway through the course, during the winter of 1979, a campus snowball fight took a disastrous turn when a shard of glass punctured my right eye. After Dr. Ron Hunt at the College Infirmary quickly assessed the injury, he called my parents, who thankfully braved a treacherous drive through a blizzard to get me to Charlotte.

Dr. Charles F. Marshall Jr.

Fortunately, Dr. Charles F. Marshall, Jr., one of Davidson’s finest alums, was on call for Ophthalmology. That night Charlie surgically repaired my eye and kept me at Charlotte Memorial Hospital for a week, administering eye injections twice a day to give me the best chance of saving my sight.

The unexpected silver lining in this experience was a perfectly legitimate excuse to withdraw from Nick Burnett’s Analytical Chemistry course and, eventually, pass it as a sophomore.

Years afterward, I had the privilege of getting to know Charlie's parents, Charles Sr. and Kathleen Marshall, whose leadership was instrumental in establishing The Pines.

The takeaway from this installment?

Students of all kinds, take note - sometimes the professors you meet because a course is required become lifelong friends, mentors, and colleagues in ways you never could have imagined.

The lessons may extend far beyond the classroom, and, if you’re lucky, the professors themselves may become part of your life long after the course is over.

In the third and final installment of Davidson College professors who shaped this physician, I’ll turn to the professors I came to know only after returning to Davidson as a physician - professors whose courses I wish I had been fortunate enough to take as a student.