From right: Dr. Waldenstrom from Sweden, Dr. Elliott Osserman, me. and ???
Dr. Takashi Isobe (磯部) on the right.
On 1985-04-12 , Osserman Symposium was held at the Hanger Amphitheater of Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. The dinner was given the night before at Dr. Osserman's home in NJ. He was 60 years old, suffering from rapidly progressive Parkinson's disease. Hematologists/immunologists in NYC organized the symposium to honor him. Besides some world level scholars, 6 former research associates of his were invited to give talks. Dr. Takatsuki (Japan), Peter Kohler (Germany), Ronald Penny (Australia), Isobe (fellow research associate), Mehdi Faranghi (also my fellow research associate), and me were the speakers. I also met Benvennuto Pernis, Pruzanski, Tischendorf couple, Sherman, Norman Talal, John Lindenbaum (hematologist), Osserman's daughters and sons-in-law: Pam and Ilan Banks, and Debbie and Bill Leith. Dr. Osserman passed away in 1989-04 at age of 64, from brain operation for the Parkinson's disease.
At the time I was at Dr. Osserman’s lab (1969-1970), he was not appreciative of my lymphocyte work. (I continued to work on it because it was the agreement before I went there.) I assumed that it was because he was used to work with proteins, which was always reproducible; but lymphocyte culture result was not as predictable as you wanted it to be. We never discussed my lymphocyte data in detail. (In addition to this, lymphocyte expert Dr. Cooperband who was in strong support of me, took a very much antagonistic position against him at a FASEB meeting in 1969, in front of me! That certainly did not help. And he was a stern and bad tempered man.) Not being liked by the boss, it was not a totally happy experience working there. I left after one year, and went to Dr. Kurt Hirschhorn’s lymphocyte lab at Mt. Sinai Hospital with the help of Dr. Charles Stedson (Chief of Pathology at NYU. I did not know him, only referred to by NYU pathologist Dr. Ovale, whom I happened to meet near our lab and chat, asking him if he could help me find a lab for me for the next year, since Osserman would not. At that time I discovered that a calf fetal protein, fetuin, stimulated lymphocytes and I needed to look into it thoroughly.)
While at Mt. Sinai, I wrote up a paper with Paul LoGerfo across the hall from Dr. Osserman’s lab (Hsu CCS, LoGerfo P: Correlation between serum alpha-globulin and plasma inhibitory effect of PHA-stimulated lymphocytes in colon cancer patients. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med, 1972;139:575-8.) He never allowed his fellows write papers prematurely. But I did not ask for his permission, only acknowledged his research grant number and submitted, and was accepted without problem. He must have known from his secretary about it. Later I somehow learned that he was not mad or unhappy about it.
In early 1975, I reported at FASEB on a case of T- leukemic cells that gradually generated B-cell markers in vivo over a period of a few months. (Hsu CCS, Marti GE, Schrek R, Williams RC Jr: Lymphocytes bearing B- and T-cell markers in patient with lymphosarcoma cell leukemia. Clin Immunol Immunopathol, 1975;3:385-95). It was an instant success. I believed all immunologists in the world heard about it within one month because total strangers from Europe recognized my name at a meeting. A couple of years later, my whole family visited NYC. I paid him a visit. Sitting in his office face to face, he asked me, “Why do you come to see me?”. I said, just to say Hi. Then he said, looking straight at me, in serious tone, “You are ahead of your peers.” It was a frank admission that he was wrong about me, my work and my ability. Coming out of a high-principled and very critical man, I felt like being admitted to a new arena.
My father was a well known-collector of paintings and calligraphies of contemporary artists in Taiwan. He collected a total of 30+ books of those art works, by asking the artists to do their work on them. They all complied. One of the biggest regret I have is that in a hurry to move out of our house in Ching-tien Street, Taipei, after his passing, I did not manage to donate those books to some society in Taiwan. They were given to the landlord of the studio apartment where I moved to. I just hope they take good care of these art works.
許媽瞈 (or 許公望, my father) collection of wine bottles. They were donated to Wine Library in Bu-Lih3 in central Taiwan.
My father carefully collected 120 photo albums. (Ms. Chen Mai-lin, Dr. Ma Yui-Lin's wife, and her mother so kindly digitized those pictures for me. That is the reason I can show those early black and white photos to you in the blog and VCD!!)
1981-07 we visited Chris in Manila, Phillipines where he was stationed. The houses for the diplomats and fruits were so impressive
.
Uncle Chris looked like an 8th degree Black Belt Master!!
We the family of four and my father also visited Moh-yuan.
Back row from the right: Dr. Bob Hedger (nephrologist), Dr. Nam (pulmonologist), me and Yui-Li. Front Row: Mrs. Hedger??, Dr. Bob Slott (allergist, shared office with me), Teresa (Dr. Dordal's secretary), Anna (helped me with the billing), and Anna's husband (assistant district attorney in Chicago). I invited them to buffet lunch at Hugo's of the Hyatt Regency Hotel near O'Hare Airport before my departure from the Columbus Hospital.
Dr. Melvin Goldstein, a gastroenterologist, of Columbus Hospital.
Dr. Erl dordal, a gastroenterologist, clinical professor of medicine at NUMS, and the chief of medicine at the Columbus Hopsital. Very sharp, quick thinking, with superb managerial skills, and could be very humorous.
Uncle #4's daughter, Hyo-chiang and her husband. Uncle #4 was so proud of their children. Kept showing off their photos to us when we visited him.
Yui-Li, Zhi-ping(志平), his son, his wife, Tsuey-lin (翠琳), and ???
Felix' graduation from the College of Engineering, Northwestern University. Classmate Wang Hsien-Zhang's daughter was also in the graduating class.
High school classmate, Hsieh 謝寬仁 drove 10 hours from Saint Louis to Chicago O'Hare Airport on the day when I was to fly to Taiwan to work. After that he would drive 10 hours back to St. Louis!!!!! He passed away in 2006 within 3 days from some infection, after coming back from South America.
After going to Taiwan to work at Hualien Tzu-chi Hospital in 1990-07, I rode scooter for transportation for about 3 years. A new car was too expensive for me to buy.
Renee and Felix came to Chicago from Washington, D.C., where they work, to see us. I was working in Taiwan, but was returning to the US for home visit at least twice a year.
We went to Chicago Fest.
The tomb of my grand parents which is connected to my mother's, at Yang-ming Shan #1 Public Cemetery.
Mother's grave that contained her urn. My father's was added later, in 1999. In 2007, I moved all 4 urns to Shan4-Dau3 Temple (善導寺) in Taipei.
The place had the flower azalea (rhododendron, 杜鵑花) that was blooming every Spring covering half of our home back yard for so many years.
In the Spring time the azalea flowers 杜鵑花 are all over the back yard of our house at Shin-Shen South Road.
Father was quite happy with the yard that he took care of.
