(L to r) Mrs. Neil Moran, Dr. and Mrs. Robert B. Smith, and Dr. Neil C. Moran. Dr. William Waters III, '58M, received the Award of Honor. Dr. Neil C. Moran received the Distinguished Medical Achievement Award. Dr. Robert P. Cunningham is immediate past president of the Medical Alumni Association. Dr. Barbara N. Croft, '78M, is 1994-1995 president of the Medical Alumni Association.

ome creative fiddling paid off at Emory's 1994 Medical Alumni Day program, attracting a feisty crowd of more than 220 to the October 1 event at the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead. Among other changes, the usual formal dinner was dropped in favor of an early evening cocktail reception that featured a live jazz combo and a more flexible atmosphere for mingling and reminiscing. Following the reception, special events were held for members of class years ending in 4 and 9. (The senior alumni participating in the reunions were from 1949, organized by class agent Dr. David Hein, and 1954, by class agent Dr. David Morgan.) Particularly noteworthy, said Robert P. Cunningham, '52M, the 1993-1994 president of the Medical Alumni Association, were the greater-than-usual numbers of younger alumni present this year. This could be attributable in equal parts, perhaps, to class spirit and to a price break for the event given to those who had graduated in the past ten years. Members of the Class of 1984, in their last year of eligibility for discounted status, were especially well represented. "I'd like to give a lot of credit and a lot of thanks to our class agents," Dr. Cunningham said. "Because of their efforts, we enjoyed one of the liveliest alumni events in recent memory." The highlight of the program was the presentation of the association's Award of Honor and Award for Distinguished Medical Achievement. The Award of Honor, the MAA's highest recognition, was presented to Dr. William C. Waters III, '50C, '58M. Dr. Waters, a staff nephrologist at Atlanta's Piedmont Hospital and the retired chairman of internal medicine at that hospital, served on the full-time faculty of Emory's School of Medicine from 1962 to 1970, when he began his practice at Piedmont. He has served on Emory's clinical faculty for the past 25 years.The medical legacy of the Waters family at Emory is a long and illustrious one: Dr. Waters' father, William C. Waters, Jr., is a '22C and '24M alumnus; his son, William C. Waters IV, is an '84M graduate. Dr. Waters III served on the house staff in the Department of Medicine at Emory from 1958 to 1960 and 1961 to 62 and completed a nephrology fellowship at New England Center Hospital (Tufts) in the intervening year. Dr. Waters is governor-elect of the Georgia affiliate of the American College of Physicians, a member of the executive committee board of trustees at Piedmont Hospital, and a past president of Emory's Medical Alumni Association. Dr. Neil C. Moran, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Pharmacology at Emory, received the Distinguished Medical Achievement Award. Dr. Moran, a 1950 graduate of Stanford University School of Medicine, first came to Emory in 1952 on a two-year assignment with the National Heart Institute. He rejoined the faculty in 1956 and has served continuously since, most notably as chairman of Pharmacology from 1962 to 1992. Among the many honors bestowed to Dr. Moran during his long career are a senior research fellowship and career development award from the National Institutes of Health, an appointment as a visiting research fellow in pharmacology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and selection as a fellow in the American Association for the Advancement of Science. A pre-eminent researcher, Dr. Moran has also exerted considerable influence as an educator. Tellingly, in 12 years, from 1968 to 1979, he was chosen seven times as the "best basic sciences professor" by the graduating classes of Emory's medical school. Dr. Cunningham informed the alumni of the success of fundraising for the Evangeline Papageorge Alumni Teaching Award. The endowment for the award, he reported, has doubled in size from last year, thanks to the generous contributions of alumni and other friends of excellent teaching. "We still have a long way to go," Dr. Cunnigham said, "but we're on the right track. I would especially like to thank Dr. William McKinnon [past president of the Medical Alumni Association] for chairing the Selection Committee, as well as the class agents for their hard work sending out letters soliciting contributions." The Papageorge Award, given annually to an Emory medical faculty member who is an outstanding teacher and named in honor of the medical school's former associate dean, was first presented in 1993, to Dr. Jonas Shulman, professor of medicine and associate dean for medical education and student affairs. The 1994 recipient, pathology professor Whit Sewell, was announced at the spring commencement exercises for the School of Medicine. Dr. Cunningham also passed the gavel of leadership to new MAA President Barbara Nason Croft, '78M. Dr. Croft, a native of Huntsville, Alabama, completed her internship and residency at the Emory University affiliated hospitals in gynecology-obstetrics, finishing in 1982. She is married to David Forquer and has two children, a daughter and a son. Dr. Croft, a staff physician at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta since 1982, is a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists. She is a board member of Piedmont Medical Center and on the Board of Trustees of the Association of Emory Alumni. During her term as MAA president, Dr. Croft would like to see an increase in participation in the alumni association. "We have lost touch with a lot of people over the years, and we are going to make a concerted effort to find some of our lost classmates and to stay in closer contact. I have been meeting with the dean to discuss strategies on how to do this, such as using computers and having medical students phone alumni to update their records. If you have been out of touch with the medical school for several years and, especially if you have moved and not left a forwarding address or phone number, I urge you to take a few minutes and call the alumni office at (404) 727-5714 and let us know where you are and what you're doing. Also, if you know the whereabouts of an Emory alumnus who is not keeping in touch, encourage him or her to do so. If you receive a phone call from our students, please help them out with information." Other new officers for 1994-1995 are Walker L. Ray, '65M, vice-president; Margaret M. Mermin, '77M, secretary-treasurer; and W. Jefferson Pendergrast, '72M, trustee.