Careers in public health are both critically important and noble. They address systemic inequities, educate the public, increase access to information and care, and develop ways to improve the lives of entire populations.
Watching the Columbia space shuttle launch in 1982, a young Kjell Lindgren set his sights on becoming an astronaut. His appetite grew until, in 2015, he found himself tending to one of the first plants grown off-Earth on the International Space Station (ISS). The taste of that first space adventure – and the red romaine lettuce – was beyond anything he’d dreamed.
Sometimes life takes unexpected turns and puts you on a path you could never foresee. That was true for Donald “Don” Egan, MD ’66 (Resident ’70). His first career started in 1958 with the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he quickly learned he would not be suitable as the next Maverick.
As dawn broke over the South Pacific on Sept. 21, 1944, Jack Comstock, MD, stepped out of the officers’ quarters on his callused bare feet, wearing a G-string and little else. He stared at the specks on the pale horizon.
In fall 1944, prisoner-of-war Jack Comstock, MD, was assigned to travel to Bilibid Prison in Manila then to a boat along with 500 slave laborers bound for Japan. With the medical detachment approaching, Comstock knew the time had come.
He needed to bury the latest stash of diary entries underground – literally.
Jim Kilburn, a relative of Jack Comstock’s who lives in Boulder, recalls a humorous entry in Comstock’s World War II diary.
“Uncle Doc,” as Jack Arthur Comstock became known, was born in Fort Collins on Dec. 19, 1914, the youngest child of George and “Miss Arthur” Comstock. During his early years, Jack’s family, which included a brother and a sister, shuttled between dusty outposts in Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma. Members of the family often separated for the sake of keeping or finding employment.
Jack Comstock, MD, was living out his dream in the South Pacific in late 1941. He had achieved his goal of becoming a doctor, joined the Army and landed an attractive peacetime post – attending surgeon at Sternberg Hospital in the Philippines.
Community COVID-19 Alumni Students
The stress and uncertainty of the pandemic continues to take a toll on front-line workers, many of whom are CU Anschutz alumni. To lighten moods and brighten spirits, the CU Medical Alumni Association and CU Anschutz Alumni co-hosted comedian Brad Nieder on Dec. 2.
Research Education Alumni Students
A pilot program giving alumni access to select library resources is helping to strengthen alumni connections to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
Guest Contributor
