Interview with Harold Magalnick

Interview with Harold Magalnick

Magalnick, Harold ; Gashurov, Irene

2019-02-28

In Copyright

Harold Magalnick.mp3

2019-02-28

Oral Histories from 60's Binghamton Alumni

43:47 minutes

Alumni Interviews
Interview with: Harold Magalnick
Interviewed by: Irene Gashurov
Transcriber: Oral History Lab
Date of interview: 28 February 2019
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(Start of Interview)

HM: 00:00
So, my name is Harold Magalnick, M, A, G, A, L, N, I, C, K, and I graduated from State University of New York Binghamton in 1967, and we are currently in Phoenix, Arizona, where I am a pediatrician. So that, once I graduated from Binghamton, I went to the State University of New York downstate for medical school. So, I was there for four years, from 1967 until 1971. I then went to do a pediatric residency at the University of Maryland from 1971 until 1975, then I did a year of psychiatry residency from 1975 to 1976, then I went into the Navy for two years. I was one of the last of the draft of doctors from 1976 to 1978, and then I have been in this practice since 1978.

IG: 01:10
May I borrow your pen? Thank you so much. So let us start at the beginning, and maybe you could tell us where you grew up, you know, and what kind of upbringing you have.

HM: 01:33
So, I grew up in the Bronx, New York. I am one of three boys. I have a twin brother, and I have an older brother who is four years older than my twin brother and I. My father was a pharmacist in our area where we grew up. My mother worked in the store, and my older brother is a pharmacist. My twin brother- when we went to Harpur, it was a trimester, so that my twin brother could not get into the November semester. So, he actually started in July, where I started in November, so that he then went to summer schools and graduated from Binghamton the year before I graduated. So, he graduated-graduated 1966, where I graduated in 1967; he went to dental school, when I went to medical school.

IG: 02:31
And what did you see? You started in (19)63 or (19)64?

HM: 02:35
I started in (19)63.

IG: 02:40
So, what was, oh, so was education, higher education encouraged in your family?

HM: 02:48
My father was the first one. My father is one of six. He has three sisters. He had three sisters and two brothers, and he is the only one of the six that graduated college. So that I do not think it was ever an issue, we would not go I was I graduated second in a class of 1000 from high school.

IG: 03:12
Wow. And what high school did you go to?

HM: 03:14
Christopher Columbus High School in the Bronx, and had a full ride at CCNY [The City College of New York] in their honors program, but I did want to stay in city, so my parents said that you can go to Binghamton only because I had an uncle and an aunt who lived in Oneonta, not too far away, and they felt it was okay as long as there was family close by. So, my parents allowed my twin brother and I to go outside of New York City, and then I was a- had a Regents scholarship so that my tuition was mostly paid for. So, my parents just paid for room and board. And it was an interesting experience. I mean, I had the same roommate for four years.

IG: 04:03
Really?

HM: 04:03
So, we met each other on the first day, and then he went to medical school in Buffalo. When I went to medical school downstate.

IG: 04:10
Was he from New York City or from-

HM: 04:12
He was from Queens?

IG: 04:13
What is his name, by the- for the record?

HM: 04:19
Oh, Jay Harolds, H, A, R, O, L, D, S, and he is now a radiologist. He was living in Oklahoma City, but I think he is actually now practicing outside of Oklahoma, but his family still lives in Oklahoma.

IG: 04:35
Is your brother in Phoenix?

HM: 04:37
No, he is a- well, he is now retired. A lot of us from my career are retired. So, he is retired. He lives in Boston. He was practicing in Boston.

IG: 04:51
So let us jump to Harpur College and your first impressions of the campus. I mean, you are a big city boy, and you come to the country.

HM: 05:03
It was very cold because it started in November, and I remember the dormitories Harpur was going through an expansion mode during the four years that I was there. So, there was constant construction. And it was, um, a very difficult school; three-quarters of the entering class were either valedictorian and salutatorian of the graduating classes. So, you had this brain trust, so that it was a lot of very bright kids.

IG: 05:35
But you were number two in your high school of 1000.

HM: 05:38
Correct, so that I was perfectly capable of being part of the brain trust, but still, it was a lot of competition. So, when you had 1000 students at my high school, the number that were truly competitive for me was not that great. But at Binghamton-

IG: 05:53
It was all very competitive.

HM: 05:55
All very competitive, especially in the sciences, and some of the teachers were also very competitive, so that-

IG: 06:02
With the students?

HM: 06:03
Yes, so that they made decisions on whether they felt that they wanted you to go to medical school or not go to medical school. There was a lot, especially in organic chemistry and those higher-level sciences, they made decisions.

IG: 06:17
I never heard that. This is, this is really interesting. It is an interesting observation.

HM: 06:22
Well, we had an organic chemistry teacher who would write with both hands, and then when three-quarters of the class got D's and F's the first semester, and nobody, I mean, these are bright kids.

IG: 06:34
Yeah.

HM: 06:35
He decided that for the second semester, those kids who survived the first semester, that he would do tutorials. So, we would throw you in front of the entire section, hammer you with questions in front of the entire section, and if you did not know that, if you did not know the answers, he would kind of berate you.

IG: 06:51
That is very old school.

HM: 06:52
Very old school.

IG: 06:53
Was he from?

IG: 06:55
Who knows? Who knows? You do not know if he was an immigrant from-

HM: 07:00
Oh, no-no Norcross [Bruce Norcross], and he was, he was not an immigrant from anywhere. He was very smart, but he was very full of himself. And maybe he was a frustrated doctor.

IG: 07:11
Maybe.

HM: 07:12
So that maybe that was the issue. But it was. It was definitely an issue. My true brother was so worried about taking organic because it was one of my only Cs in college. My first semester, I got a B the second semester. But C the first semester, he took it at Ford, and we got two A's over the summer so that he was-

IG: 07:31
He would not have [crosstalk] required. So, you had a requirement. Obviously, you wanted to go into the sciences. You- did you have medicine-

HM: 07:41
I knew I wanted to be a pediatrician; I was 10.

IG: 07:44
You always knew that. How come?

HM: 07:46
I just knew I wanted to work with children, so that I was going to be a pediatrician, and my parents did not want me to be a pediatrician. They wanted me to be a dentist because they felt my father being a pharmacist. Felt that pediatricians and physicians do not spend enough time with their families, so that they want to be a dentist. I said, “No, I do not want to be a dentist.”

IG: 08:07
Why? How did you decide? Did you have a role model?

HM: 08:11
No, I went to a family doctor.

IG: 08:12
And did you like this family doctor?

HM: 08:15
No.

IG: 08:15
No. It is interesting. It is interesting when-when children make these decisions, and they just stay with them. Yeah, uh-

HM: 08:24
It was never an issue that I was not going to go to medical school.

IG: 08:27
In your mind?

HM: 08:28
Yes, in my mind.

IG: 08:30
You never, but do you mind if we close the door? Because, okay, so you were on the, you know, medical track, on the science track at Harpur, but I understand that there were also humanities requirements that you had.

HM: 08:39
Oh, yeah, I was actually, I was a literature minor. I loved reading.

IG: 08:56
You loved reading. So, what did you think of your profs and the courses that you were taking?

HM: 09:03
You know, all of those were kind of fluff fun for the science majors.

IG: 09:06
Oh, really?

HM: 09:07
The problems at Binghamton is that everything was four credits

IG: 09:10
Yeah.

HM: 09:10
So that my sociology 101, was the same four credits as my organic chemistry class, which included tutorials and lab the same four credits. So, therefore, there was really no equality across the board. The science majors were really pooped upon because we had so much more work. My wife was a German literature major. There were three people in her German artist section, so that she knew everybody, and there was a very close department.

IG: 09:44
Right.

HM: 09:44
It was not that way in science.

IG: 09:46
Did she go into the sciences, ultimately, your wife?

HM: 09:49
She graduated, and then made the decision, she wanted to marry me, and we got married a year later. No, probably six months after she graduated, and she went into computer programming, which was just another language to put me through medical school.

IG: 10:10
That is an interesting way of looking at it.

HM: 10:12
And then she- we had our first child the end of my internship year, and she- we decided we did not want anyone else bringing up our children, so she did not work outside the home until our youngest was in kindergarten, and now she owns a medical billing firm with my daughter, who has her German mind, and she has a degree in applied mathematics and her MBA, and they own a medical building firm.

IG: 10:36
How interesting. How interesting. Well, I have sort of, you know, scoped out the professional lives of your family members. So, you know, let us return to earlier, formative experience-

HM: 10:44
And my brother also married his girlfriend from Binghamton.

IG: 10:59
Oh, really?

HM: 10:59
Yeah, so that my sister-in-law went to Binghamton, my wife and I went to Binghamton. My twin brother went to Binghamton.

IG: 11:06
So, how did you have time if you studied so hard? How did you have time to socialize and meet your wife?

HM: 11:11
She- we started dating in April of my senior year.

IG: 11:16
I see.

HM: 11:16
April of her junior year.

IG: 11:18
I see.

HM: 11:18
And then we got engaged in November of my first year of medical school, and it was her senior year.

IG: 11:29
I see. So-so, you probably had, you know, kind of, you know, the academics eased up by that time.

HM: 11:39
No.

IG: 11:40
No, all right. Well, you know, let us, let us backtrack and let us talk about, you know, courses that really made an impact on you, humanities, sciences, I mean, a positive, you know, you spoke about this-

IG: 11:58
Organic chemistry.

IG: 12:01
-tyrannical teacher. What other? What other, you know, positive or negative? What other?

HM: 12:06
There are some lovely teachers, yeah, so that are my microbiology teacher was just and actually she was an MD, and she came back and was teaching micro, and she was marvelous. And I remember some of my English Lit teachers who were just marvelous, and my poli sci-

IG: 12:29
How were they marvelous? What-what-what world do they open for you?

HM: 12:33
I think the issue to allow the ability to discuss in a collegial way where you feel that your viewpoint is-is as treasured as anyone else's viewpoint was an important issue for Binghamton, so that it was a group of very bright kids, so allow them to fly and allow them to do what they need to do. So, the atmosphere in those days was more small-town, so that everybody got to know everybody else. But with the trimester where you are pushed into four months, it was a little bit more concentrated, and I think that is what made it harder, because you did not have just two months off.

IG: 13:18
Right.

HM: 13:19
You had four months off. But during the four to eight months you were in school, those were concentrated periods of time together, all the work done in a shorter period of time.

IG: 13:30
I see.

HM: 13:31
So that it was just a little bit more concentrated. They then got rid of the trimester, so that-that was only there during the time we were there.

IG: 13:42
So how did the trimester go? Just explain to us, how did it work? So, you had-

HM: 13:46
My twin brother started in July.

IG: 13:48
Yeah.

HM: 13:49
So that his master started in July, ended in November.

IG: 13:52
Right. And then?

HM: 13:52
Then there was one that went for four months, from November, November, December, January, February.

IG: 13:57
I see, I see.

HM: 13:58
And then there was another one that went from March, April, May, and June.

IG: 14:02
Okay.

HM: 14:03
So that you could graduate, if you went to all the master's.

IG: 14:06
Right.

HM: 14:06
You could graduate-

IG: 14:07
In three years.

HM: 14:08
-two and two-thirds years.

IG: 14:09
Oh, wow.

HM: 14:09
And that was an issue the state wanted to look at getting right people through right. Most people did not do two and two-thirds years, but my friend brother graduated a year before I did.

IG: 14:22
So, you know, could you talk about some of the- I am going to [inaudible]. So, could you talk about some of the specific courses that made an impression on you, and the way maybe that they opened your understanding of a discipline or a different way of looking at the world, at life. Do you have any memories about that?

HM: 14:56
I think that some of the science classes, even the bio the beginning botany class, I think, going out into the woods around Binghamton, because especially in the spring, we would do a lot of our labs outside, and you would go through the area of the river and pick up different plants and look at them. And I thought that was neat to do so that the instructors and the professors were really involved in getting us out into our environment, see what was around that whole Southern Tier where Binghamton is, was fun. So, I loved the issues of us getting out and doing those things. I remember, I do not remember, I think it was just a biology class where we had to do respiratory quotients. And they brought in a vat of cockroaches, so that we had this huge vat of cockroaches, and we all had to go into this vat, take out a cockroach, and put it into a-a test tube, and then test the respiratory quotient of a cockroach. And nobody wanted to go in and put their hands in the cockroach. And then one-one of the girls in the class that she did not really care, so for the entire class, she was putting cockroaches in everybody's test tube. But then one person, the cockroach, got out and threw up, threw their hands up in the air, and they all the whole class ran around trying to pick up this cockroach. Then the professor says, "Let us not use cockroaches. Let us use green peas." And that was much easier to do the green peas, but it was just fun.

IG: 16:51
Yeah.

HM: 16:52
It was just fun. And it was just neat. The interaction that occurred between the professors and the students.

IG: 16:58
And the students. How large were the classes?

HM: 17:02
A lot of them were in the sciences. A lot of them were lectures, so that when you went down to your smaller labs, those were smaller, and they could be 20 to 30. But in the large lecture halls, there were probably 200.

IG: 17:16
Were the labs conducted by a graduate assistant or by the professor?

HM: 17:19
Both.

IG: 17:20
Yeah, both.

HM: 17:23
There was no graduate school when we first started. Binghamton got much bigger.

IG: 17:28
That is right.

HM: 17:29
Harpur got much bigger as time went on. So, they started with graduate programs, but there was not many graduate students when we first started.

IG: 17:37
Thanks. Thanks for reminding me. I think I knew that. What was residential life like? Describe your campus. By the way, did you interact with students from upstate New York? And-

HM: 17:54
No.

IG: 17:55
You did not? It was all-

HM: 17:56
I mean, did I interact with students? Oh, students [crosstalk]

IG: 17:58
From-from [crosstalk]

HM: 17:59
Yeah-yeah, we interact with everyone.

IG: 18:01
With everyone, with every-

HM: 18:02
There was a marked difference between downstate and upstate, so that there was also a marked difference between those who were Jewish and those who were not Jewish, so that there was a lot of differences that existed in Binghamton at the time. There was, and it was the beginning of the radical movement. So, there was a lot of political things going on in Binghamton at the time, because the whole Vietnam War was becoming a major issue.

IG: 18:33
Right.

HM: 18:34
So that there were lots of things that were going on that was producing a lot of turmoil on campus.

IG: 18:40
So, were you involved in any of it?

HM: 18:42
No.

IG: 18:43
No, but you watched.

HM: 18:45
Oh yes, you had to watch.

IG: 18:45
You had to watch it.

HM: 18:47
You are involved with it, but-

IG: 18:48
Could you, could you describe it? I know that there were sit-ins.

HM: 18:52
Oh yeah, it was kind of fun. And you heard all this stuff, and there were a certain group of people that were really involved with that more, much more, when you looked at the sciences, we had too much work, so that we did not have the time. But the kids that were in poli sci and sociology, they had plenty of time.

IG: 19:09
They had plenty of time.

HM: 19:10
So that they could do all of this stuff, and they grew their hair, and they had the free love. And the people in the sciences, we did not have time for them.

IG: 19:19
Did you sympathize with them? What did you think of them?

HM: 19:25
I, you know, it is hard for me now to truly know what I felt at the time, because too much water has gone under the bridge.

IG: 19:35
Yeah.

HM: 19:35
So that I think my political views have kind of evolved over a period of time, and since I was not radicalized as a student.

IG: 19:43
Right.

HM: 19:43
I do not think that I truly remember. I do not know. I think that I- there were certain points of view that I thought were appropriate for women's rights. It is minorities and the treatment of minorities, the whole issue of war, these were things that were becoming big during the (19)60s.

IG: 20:10
Even-even (19)63 and (19)64 there were-

HM: 20:13
The beginnings of those issues.

IG: 20:15
-beginnings of those issues, but they were probably-

HM: 20:17
When I remember when Kennedy was assessed.

IG: 20:19
Yes-yes.

HM: 20:20
So that-that was a major issue on the loss of innocence that occurred with the assassination of a president. So that, and I remember the day that, and I was a freshman, I think it was he must have died in (19)63.

IG: 20:35
Kennedy?

HM: 20:36
Yeah.

IG: 20:36
November (19)63.

HM: 20:39
Yeah. And I remember that was November, and we started in November, so that I had just started at Harpur, and I remember going down in the TV was down in the-

IG: 20:51
The Student Union?

HM: 20:53
No, it was that the student union was on the other side of campus, so that each dormitory had a little rec room with a TV in it, so that we would go down to the rec room. Because to get to the student unit, you had to go over the bridge that linked they went over the little highway, and it was always icy, and it was November, and it was icy, and it was horrible outside, so that you stayed at this at your own dormitory, and I remember going there and seeing everybody around the TV as the whole issue with Kennedy's assassination was unfolding. So, it was a major issue at Binghamton.

IG: 21:37
It was a major issue at Binghamton. And I mean, did that make you feel alarmed when you saw the assassination? You said, loss of innocence, you put it very well. How did that impact you? Or did it-

HM: 21:54
Well, I think that the issue of the vulnerability that you are and- at any time, at any place, became much more obvious. I think that as a teenager, we look at ourselves as invincible. And now you say, no-no, you are always vulnerable.

IG: 22:08
Even-even from that one assassination, you felt that somehow you were more vulnerable as a result. That is interesting. What I know that you were immersed in your studies. But what were some of the discussions, political discussions in the air at that time? What were people? What were people talking about that they thought was unjust or they favored, or, you know, what kind of things?

HM: 22:38
Well, I think the big issue was the draft.

IG: 22:40
Yes.

HM: 22:41
So, the draft was a big issue, and how one gets deferred, and what are the things to get deferred? And if you do not get deferred, what do you do?

IG: 22:49
Right.

HM: 22:49
And who is going to leave the country, and who is not going to leave the country. So those were major issues that kids nowadays do not deal with.

IG: 22:57
Right.

HM: 22:58
That was a major defining issue of even what you were going to do in your career, what gets you deferred, and what does not get you deferred. So, what your draft number was and where you are in the draft [crosstalk] was a major issue.

IG: 23:18
What were some of the ways that I know that staying in school, and you know, going on for your graduate-

HM: 23:24
Medical school.

IG: 23:25
-education, medical school, was one sure way of avoiding the draft.

HM: 23:31
Correct.

IG: 23:31
But what were some other, you know, strategies-

HM: 23:36
You know, I do not remember [crosstalk], and that is the only one that I knew obviously, if you had an infirmity that was going to keep you out of the-

IG: 23:42
Right-right.

HM: 23:43
-to play on the issue of your infirmity.

IG: 23:46
Right.

HM: 23:48
There was a lot of yeah debate going back and forth.

IG: 23:51
What do you think that there was that created an air of an anxiety among your friends?

HM: 23:57
Yeah. Because if you got kicked out of school, you went directly to the draft board. So that the issue, and here you are in a very hard school.

IG: 24:06
Right.

HM: 24:06
And you know what percentage you are going to go on to go to medical school? When you have a lot of bright kids, are you going to get everybody into medical school? Probably not. So that the issue is that it produced more of the issue of the anxiety. So, you know, I think the issue of dating, and I think the whole issue of being away from home and being in a more diverse environment. And I had two brothers; I did not have any sisters. How one develops one whole issue about one's sexuality was a major player at Binghamton, too.

IG: 24:47
Yeah.

HM: 24:48
So, there are the people that were much freer and the people that were not very free at all, and how one dealt with-

IG: 24:56
How did you look upon that? Were you? You know, you mentioned free love, and you know, the kind of radical student, you know, radical-minded students. And how did you, you know? How did that influence you? How did you regard that?

HM: 25:12
I regarded that as interesting-

IG: 25:14
As interesting.

HM: 25:15
-but it was not-

IG: 25:16
It was not.

HM: 25:17
-for me.

IG: 25:17
Yeah, okay.

HM: 25:19
So that I was interested in getting my studies done.

IG: 25:24
Yeah-yeah.

HM: 25:25
So that and my roommate was very similar to me.

IG: 25:27
Right.

HM: 25:28
So, the two of us were very, very similar.

IG: 25:30
Right.

HM: 25:31
But, you know, they did not have any fraternities in Binghamton when we were there. They only had social clubs.

IG: 25:37
Right.

HM: 25:38
So that we decided a group of us got together to make our own social club.

IG: 25:43
What was the social club?

HM: 25:45
It was called, I will think of it in a second. STO, some Greek letters, sigma, something [crosstalk], so but it was STO, and we just got together, and we made it. We got a chart, we developed our charter so that we could meet as a social club, and we had social action. I got involved in going to the mental hospital, the state mental hospital in Binghamton. Service there,

IG: 26:21
Oh, that is great.

HM: 26:23
So that I got involved in city action work. What is city action work? Looking at the issue of how people are treated in the state hospitals.

IG: 26:36
How marvelous.

HM: 26:37
How people access care. And I continue using that today in my community action work that I do here.

IG: 26:46
And so, what are and so the school actually paved the way for that opportunity. Or did you seek it out yourself? I mean, how did you-

HM: 26:55
I think that at-at the Student Union, there were always things up on the board for you to do. So maybe it happened through the Student Union. I do not know exactly, but I remember going to the state hospital and meeting people and-and it was an interesting experience. I mean, that might be one of the reasons that I was going to do child psychiatry. But the Navy did not want me as a psychiatrist; they wanted me as a pediatrician, so that I just did a year of psychiatry. But it has always been an important part of my life, and it probably started from back when I was in Binghamton.

IG: 27:35
What was the hospital?

HM: 27:37
The state mental hospital.

IG: 27:38
The state mental and was that in Binghamton, or Endicott?

HM: 27:42
I think it was in Binghamton.

IG: 27:44
In Binghamton. How-how interesting. So, at the hospital, did you assist doctors as they made their rounds, or?

HM: 27:53
Oh no-no-no- I think-

IG: 27:54
This is- what did you do exactly?

HM: 27:56
I do not necessarily remember exactly, but the issue is that I would go in and the issue of helping organize activities.

IG: 27:57
I see, I see.

HM: 28:12
So that I was part of the team that went in on a regular basis to give support when activities were being done, so which is meeting and greeting, and realizing that nobody is crazy all the time, the issue is everybody needs to have a friend, and that it was important to be a consistent object for these people. So that it taught me a little bit about my ego strengths, and it was fun.

IG: 28:42
Your ego stress.

HM: 28:43
Strengths.

IG: 28:44
Strength.

HM: 28:45
Strengths.

IG: 28:46
Ego strength, that is really fascinating. So how did you carry you-you felt that you-you know throughout your life, you-you somehow, you know, continue this continued the lessons gained from that experience.

HM: 29:02
That happened, I did in order to be board certified in peds; you have to do three years of general pediatrics. I actually did four years, because the fourth year was chief residency. So that I think that my whole issue at Binghamton was to also give me the tools to be a leader, so that you had a lot of bright people, and they were pushed into doing certain things, and maybe that also gave me the ability to know my strengths, so that it was not an issue, that I was not going to be chief resident, so that I was chief resident, and they only picked two out of every class to go on to becoming Chief and then psychiatry was marvelous, because it was just developmental stuff that I had been doing forever. So, it was fun to do psychiatry for a year. My wife did not like me as a psychiatrist, but I liked me as a psychiatrist. And then in the military, it was kind of interesting when you had to deal with hierarchy that was not as bright as you are, but it was also a very good experience, and that is what brought us out to the West Coast. Otherwise, we would still be back East.

IG: 30:21
That is, that is, that is very interesting. That is everything is that whole career arc. Do you think that you know your professors, knowing that you were facing the draft, protected you in some way by giving- I know that there was-

HM: 30:42
They would use that.

IG: 30:44
They would use that, oh.

HM: 30:46
If you do not do what I tell you to do, and you do not do well, you are going to flunk out, and if you flunk out, you are going to go directly into the military.

IG: 30:55
I see, I see. I- you know, I have heard varying things, but I guess I have not spoken to too many [inaudible]. I have spoken, actually, to another doctor, but somebody who became a doctor, but so did you, you know- So you gave me, sort of, you know, an overview of your career after Binghamton, and have you, have you stayed in touch with any of your classmates? You have not?

HM: 31:36
Jay Harold is my roommate. I have been in touch with.

IG: 31:38
You have been, you have been.

HM: 31:39
My old girlfriend who was married to my twin brother's best friend.

IG: 31:43
Oh, well.

HM: 31:43
I have been in contact with. Because he is a pathologist in Palm Springs, and his wife is a realtor now, but she was a political science major at Binghamton, and we know each other.

IG: 31:59
How did you, did you stay in touch with them throughout your life? Or, yeah. Did you notice big changes from because my understanding of the early (19)60s is that, you know, the type of student rebelliousness was a lot more docile than it became in the late (19)60s. Did you notice, you know, striking differences?

HM: 32:24
Well, I think as the war wore on and people became more incensed about what was going on, then people became much more radicalized, and I think that as the press became more involved, and you saw, when you were seeing more of what was going on, people became more radicalized. But we even in the early (19)60s, we knew that there were people who were provocateurs that were on campus, and they were there to get people involved.

IG: 33:03
Did Harpur have a reputation of, you know, being a radical college even then, back then, because it did in the late (19)60s.

HM: 33:16
It got, it was known as the diamond in the university system, that you had a lot of very-very bright kids, that is

IG: 33:27
That was a reputation, but did not have a reputation.

HM: 33:30
You also got that. It is a little bit more left than right.

IG: 33:42
What? You know? What are some of the greatest lessons that you learned from your time at Harpur that have benefited Well, you mentioned your psychiatric experience,

HM: 33:57
Community involvement.

IG: 33:59
Community involvement.

HM: 34:00
And I have been doing that forever, going into schools, being involved with how children are educated. I follow kids. I do I think for children in special education, they have an individual educational plan. And I go every year to multiple kids’ IEPs [Individualized Education Program], because my feeling is, is that they need to get what they need to get from school. And sometimes services are not allowed for certain children unless I show up.

IG: 34:32
That is fantastic.

HM: 34:34
So that I go, I do not get paid for it.

HM: 34:36
Yeah.

HM: 34:37
My issue is that it is my-my role as a pediatrician to be there. So, for some kids, I have been at every single IEP from preschool through high school.

IG: 34:50
That is fantastic.

HM: 34:51
And since I have been in the same practice for 40 years, I now see the kids of the kids, so I know these families so well.

IG: 34:59
And you think that you know this community, the germs for this community service mindset started at Harpur College. That is wonderful. Do you want to look through your [crosstalk] [looking at the yearbook]?

HM: 35:18
And it was just you can see from this how, if you take a look at the previous years, this is my graduating year.

HM: 35:25
Yeah.

HM: 35:26
This is very artsy. Once before this-

IG: 35:29
Yes.

HM: 35:30
The (19)63-

IG: 35:30
It is very artsy.

HM: 35:32
The (19)63, (19)64. the (19)65-

IG: 35:35
I like it.

HM: 35:36
Our regular look like any kind of and this is a very artsy,

IG: 35:41
Yes.

HM: 35:43
This is a change that occurred in (19)67. So (19)67 all of a sudden, it became this, you know, markedly different role here, stepping on the coat, which [crosstalk] there was mud, because we were in constant construction, and the weather was awful until the spring. And then you can see how this was.

IG: 36:14
It is beautifully laid out.

HM: 36:15
And this is 1967, when all of a sudden, this is the building. This was an administrative building, a new science building.

IG: 36:25
Right. These buildings, I think, still stand,

HM: 36:29
Now, they are the old buildings.

IG: 36:30
Yeah, now they are the old buildings.

HM: 36:31
Going down the mighty Susquehanna. This was each one of the- you would build these rafts, and the social clubs would compete against each other to go and see who could get down the river the quickest.

IG: 36:46
But you did not, you did not participate.

HM: 36:48
Oh, yeah, I was [crosstalk]

IG: 36:50
But you, yeah, you did not mention that.

HM: 36:53
Yeah.

IG: 36:55
So, you-you did play sports, did you?

HM: 37:00
I was on the student [crosstalk]

IG: 37:01
Oh, wow.

HM: 37:02
That is me.

HM: 37:14
This is the marches. You can see people.

IG: 37:17
This is from (19)67 probably.

HM: 37:19
This is (19)67.

IG: 37:19
Yeah, this is (19)67.

HM: 37:21
This is how the weather was majority of the time.

IG: 37:23
This is in Washington.

HM: 37:24
No.

IG: 37:25
This is in Binghamton. Oh, that is right, I recognize, yeah,

HM: 37:33
Going to the school.

IG: 37:37
That looks very much like the (19)60s [inaudible]. What-what-

HM: 37:54
So, there I am.

IG: 37:57
Oh, that is very nice of you. You look different. [laughs] I mean, it is not [crosstalk]

HM: 38:11
[crosstalk] so many years ago.

IG: 38:13
Yeah.

HM: 38:14
It is just kind of amazing. So here I must have been, maybe I was 20, maybe 19. Yeah, drinking.

IG: 38:27
That is sort of, you know, the overarching theme I ask. Another question I ask the people I interview is, you know, do you think that your generation's experience has something to say to students today?

HM: 38:54
I think that the issue of change and how we evoke change came through a period of time that was a tremendous amount of change that was going on, socially, economically, politically, and I think that now, with the issue of social media, things go even quicker, so that it is even harder to deal with the issue of change, but the issue of the university should allow you to have that period of time in a safe environment to reflect than how one deals with that, because the university should give you the ability the time to reflect and not just cram information down your throat.

IG: 39:35
That is great.

HM: 39:36
But need to do that issue of reflection. And Harpur was so different from New York City, which was so much more high-powered, it allowed you to do that. So, if I was at CCNY and my parents wanted me, I would have lived at home. I would have still been bound by the morality of what was my parents-

IG: 39:57
Right.

HM: 39:58
-and I would not have grown as much as. I did when I was outside.

IG: 40:04
It is a great-great response. And the theater is so interesting. It is, it is very the program now is a very strong one. Was it then?

HM: 40:25
Oh yes, very strong.

IG: 40:28
Did you have? Did you have an opportunity to attend plays or a musical group, but you-you did not have the time to participate.

HM: 40:38
I did not have the time to participate, but I did attend.

IG: 40:41
You did attend?

HM: 40:42
Oh yeah.

IG: 40:50
Were there any international students that you remember?

HM: 40:53
No.

IG: 40:53
No, it was, it was pretty much-

HM: 40:56
Yeah, you can see very vanilla.

IG: 40:58
Yes, very vanilla. So, you know, I think you know, you have spoken what, what lessons did you learn from this time in your life? I think you have, you have talked about, you know, the time to grow, the time to have a safe space, anything else that you would like to add to that.

HM: 41:22
And the issue of competition, so that actually, medical school was easier than Binghamton. The hardest thing about medical school was getting into medical school.

IG: 41:31
Right.

HM: 41:32
But Binghamton was much harder than medical school, because medical school is just memorization. You do not have to do any kind of interpretive work. All you have to do is memorize.

IG: 41:45
Right.

HM: 41:46
So, where in Binghamton, you had to think. You did not have to think too much in medical school. You just had to memorize so that it was an entirely different experience in medical school. So, Binghamton gave you that ability to develop those parts of you that need reflection. [inaudible] medical school, you do not have to do any of that.

IG: 41:47
Thank you so much. It has been really insightful. And do you have anything?

HM: 42:14
And I think Susan might have given you- Susan is in Detroit this weekend, this week, she is went on Tuesday, because she is one of the national accountants of the United States Figure Skating Association. So, she goes all over the United States doing accounting. Even though she was a German major, she was very smart. And when our kids got into figure skating, Susan had to get involved in figure skating. So, she became the president of the Arizona figure skating club.

IG: 42:38
Right.

HM: 42:41
She then became a national accountant. Taught herself all the things she needed to know, and now she goes around the United States doing accounting. She got me involved, so I was one of the team docs. The United States circuit skating association took the kids all over the world as one of the team docs, which was fun, but now I am getting too old for that.

IG: 43:04
Well, thank you so much. It has been, it has been a wonderful actually, I know I just spoke to somebody who knows your wife, a Sue Castaldo, who is in Phoenix.

HM: 43:14
Oh, really?

IG: 43:15
Yeah-yeah.

HM: 43:15
How did she know Susan?

IG: 43:17
I think through the accounting-

HM: 43:20
Oh, through the-

IG: 43:21
-accounting field, yeah.

HM: 43:23
The United States Figure Skating Association?

IG: 43:25
No.

HM: 43:27
Oh, because Susan is in because of her medical bill?

IG: 43:31
That is right, that is right. That is how she knows.

HM: 43:33
Yeah.

IG: 43:35
So, we are going to conclude our interview right now. Thank you very-very much.

HM: 43:43
So, what is going to happen with this?

IG: 43:45
Okay, I will tell you.

(End of Interview)

2019-02-28

Irene Gashurov

1967

Harold Magalnick

Dr. Harold Magalnick is a pediatrician in the Phoenix area. He is the co-owner of Pediatrix with his son, Dr. Michael Magalnick. He is a medical consultant for several school districts in Phoenix. He is a board member of Arizona’s Children Association. He is on staff with Phoenix Children’s Hospital. As a biology major at Harpur College, he worked at a Binghamton hospital for the mentally ill and attributes his sense of service to this formative experience. After graduating from Harpur, he completed his MD, cum laude, from SUNY Downstate. He served in the U.S. Navy as a staff pediatrician. He has an interest in special needs patients and school health. He has been involved in many community projects, including Make-A-Wish Arizona, for more than 30 years. Dr. Magalnick and his wife continue to live in Phoenix, Arizona.

Audio

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Harpur College – Sixties alumni; Harpur College – Alumni in medicine; Harpur College – Alumni living in Phoenix, AZ; Harpur College – Alumni who are pediatricians; Harpur College-Alumni who served in the U.S. Navy; Harpur College – Alumni in community service