The annual cost of medical school for those in the Class of 1970 was less than 2% of what it is today and represented about 9% of the median annual household income in the United States that year. Compare that with today’s tuition, which costs about 87% of the median household income, according to U.S. Census figures.

“It wasn’t this bad back then,” says William Young, a retired obstetrician/gynecologist living in New Hampshire.

Young and four others from the Class of ’70 have established a fund for students underrepresented in medicine.

Retired pediatrician Mark Friedman got the fundraising effort going. Friedman had become frustrated reading about health inequities. He saw little progress in solving those problems and began asking himself where he could make a difference, however small. The idea that appealed the most was helping students whose passion is the same as his—caring for others through medicine.

“I had been hearing a lot of general talk about needing to do things, but decided it’s time for action, not just talk,” he says. (To note, Friedman, like the other fund founders, has been giving back in many ways. For instance, the Friedmans are leading a committee in Boston, where they live, that sponsors an Afghan immigrant family. Friedman gets animated talking about the family’s successes in their newly adopted city.)

It was in 2019 that Friedman and Young found themselves helping to plan their 50th class reunion for the following year. The formal event didn’t happen until the fall of 2022 because of the pandemic, but the experience brought them closer to classmates Graham Johnstone, David Laman and Michael Linver. These five alumni founded the fund, meeting routinely over Zoom to hash out the details and forming friendships in the process.

“I was friendly with David Laman but not close friends with the other guys,” Friedman says. “That’s all changed. The guys in this group . . . we all listen to each other and get along very well together. Michael Linver is the best at keeping us together through emails. It’s been great.”

The fund, created in the name of the Class of ’70, is a roughly $30,000 allotment that Pitt Med’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion oversees. Chenits Pettigrew, EdD associate dean for diversity, equity and inclusion in the School of Medicine, notes the money is being used as gap funding, primarily to help students attend national conferences and pursue professional development opportunities.

Recently, his office was able to send 13 medical students to the Student National Medical Association’s (SNMA) Annual Medical Education Conference in Connecticut using the fund. Three of those students will hold leadership positions with the SNMA in 2024, including Ja’Nia McPhatter, who will serve as president (see One to watch.)

“There are holes to fill that further enhance their experience,” Pettigrew says. “This support is making that possible.”

Johnstone, a retired orthopaedic surgeon, and Linver, a radiologist, both say they owe much to Pitt Med, and they want to pay it forward.

“I have dedicated my professional life to trying to make the world a better place for others through my work on breast cancer detection,” says Linver, “and the opportunity to help make the lives of some Pitt Med students a little better is yet another way for me to follow that path.”

Laman wants more of his classmates to support the fund. “I encourage them to share their money generously with the medical school,” says the retired pulmonologist. “I personally owe a great deal of my success to the school.”

Says Friedman, “My children also see this as very important and often honor me by making donations to the fund for my birthday or Father’s Day. That is the best gift because seeing the fund become reality has been a very rewarding experience for me.”  

Time out
Shown here—scenes from the 1970 Hippocratean yearbook. Can you identify these snoozers? Let us know.

Since refreshed from their med school days, five classmates from 1970 have joined forces to build a fund in support of underrepresented students.

Read more from the Summer 2023 issue.