Born at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey during the blizzard of ’47 to Edna and Irving, Robert Alan Schultz survived a killer blood dyscrasia (Erythroblastosis Fetalis) because of a new medical intervention called exchange blood transfusion. One of a myriad of post World War II babies raised at a time when the embrace of peace made living in America special, Bobby and his fellow “boomers” were treated to the Father Knows Best ‘50s and the birth of Rock & Roll.
Milnes Elementary, Thomas Jefferson Junior High, and Fair Lawn Senior High School led up to (BOOM!) the ‘60s with the “British invasion”, Vietnam War, free-love and recreational drugs counter culture. Hamilton College (Clinton, NY) and a stifling year at Cornell University Medical College gave way to the bust-out passion of the “hippy trail” over four continents. Following the sun from Europe and North Africa, overland through the Middle East and Asia, far-out adventures with the “road people” and locals made conventional life back in the U.S. seem obscure. Only four years later was the guru found (right there in the town of his birth, Paterson, NJ) that set Bobby back on the path to becoming a medical doctor.
Completion of Cornell Medical School in ’78 and orthopaedic residency at Harvard in ’83 led to family (Debbie, Eric, Stephanie, and Morgan) and decades in operating room scrubs. Now semi-retired (teaching at Duke and writing), but still on the journey (parenting, open heart surgery and the aging phenomenon) Bob’s baby boomer tale is yet to be complete.
