THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, August 17, 1996 TAG: 9608170226
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARIE JOYCE, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 87 lines
If Eastern Virginia Medical School had not opened its doors, Marcus L. Martin might still be an engineer at a paper mill in Covington, figuring out better ways to bleach pulp fiber.
Not a bad job, certainly. But Martin wanted to heal people, not fix machines.
A traditional medical school didn't appeal to him. He thought about getting a graduate degree in engineering. But he heard that a new medical school was opening in Norfolk, and that it was a unique, hands-on place.
Martin joined the class of '76, the first class to graduate from EVMS. Now he runs the emergency medicine department at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.
Today, the class of '76 celebrates its 20th reunion, welcoming back 13 of the pioneers who took a gamble on the brand-new school. They will reminisce about a time of energy, excitement and experimentation.
There were just 23 of them, about of a quarter of the size of today's classes, from different parts of the country and different backgrounds.
Martin grew up in Covington, returning there after earning bachelor's degrees in chemical engineering and pulp and paper technology. Even engineering at the mill was sometimes dirty and dangerous work.
One morning about 2 a.m., he and some other workers were standing on scaffolding about 30 feet high, trying to fix a hole in a large pipeline that carried caustic soda and hot pulp.
After he went home, exhausted, he heard the wail of ambulances. Someone had accidentally turned on the pipeline with the hole, he learned later. The people standing where he had stood suffered serious burns and broken bones in falls from the scaffolding.
Visiting his injured coworkers, he seized on a dream he had when he was younger. He would be a doctor.
EVMS was the only place he applied, he said. ``It was a school without walls. There was . . . an air of excitement.''
A very different route brought Margaret W. Leigh to the school. She was the third generation of a Norfolk medical family. Her grandfather, a surgeon, built the hospital that became Sentara Leigh Hospital. Her father was a doctor. She is now chief of the pulmonary medicine and allergy division at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.
Leigh liked the commitment she saw from the people trying to build EVMS.
The original school was housed in one building, Smith-Rogers Hall, on Mowbray Arch in Norfolk. Next door sat the hospital built by her grandfather. That building is now gone, and the hospital is on Kempsville Road in Norfolk.
The students forged close friendships with the faculty. There were many small-group sessions, and an emphasis on hands-on experience.
``They loved us, and we loved them,'' said class member George C. Sakakini. ``They just wanted us to do well.''
On any evening, you might find two-thirds of the class in their study carrels at Smith-Rogers Hall, said Leigh. They helped each other. The people who understood biochemistry best might hold an impromptu lesson for the others. There was much more collaboration than she sees among her own students today.
Afterward, they might take the short walk to The Recovery Room bar to talk about classes, teachers and the future.
They were almost celebrities when they worked at local doctors' practices. School leaders asked their opinions - and followed their recommendations.
Sakakini, a Norfolk native, served as one of the class presidents. He now works at First Colonial Family Practice and Urgent Care Center in Virginia Beach.
Sakakini spoke at the graduation ceremony in Norfolk's Chrysler Hall. At the last minute, he abandoned his prepared remarks and spoke from the heart. He said that he would miss his classmates, and that he thought they were well-prepared to be doctors.
Today, the class of '76 visits a school that looks very different from the one they attended. Smith-Rogers Hall is still there, housing school offices, but there are many new buildings sprawled on either side of Brambleton Avenue, next to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters. The buildings house a host of new programs.
Sure, Sakakini admits, he sometimes envies all the new facilities available to the present EVMS students. But not much.
``I just felt our experience was so unique, it made up for that,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: B\W photo
Of the 23 members of the first graduating class at Eastern Virginia
Medical School, 13 have returned to celebrate the group's 20th
anniversary today in Norfolk.
Photo by CHARLIE MEADS\The Virginian-Pilot
Dr. George Sakakini, Class of 1976, was a class president when he
attended Eastern Virginia Medical School.
KEYWORDS: REUNION EVMS by CNB