David Nathan's Message

Dear Victor:

Thanks so much for giving me an opportunity to send a note of congratulations to PSR on reaching its 50th birthday. I remember so well our gatherings in Bernie Lown's living room and especially remember our trip to Washington to testify against the shelter program.

Do you remember the congressman from upstate New York who summoned us after the meeting and turned to me to say, "Thank you sonny, for coming down here to testify. What do you think the folks up in New York will say if I tell them that I voted against a program that generals had advised because a couple of kids from Harvard said it was no good?" (He voted against it and the whole program went down in flames).

Those were wonderful if frightening days and, although the Dean of Harvard Medical School scolded us, we knew we were right, and we gained the support of the Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine whose editorial was the best piece in that historic issue of the Journal.

Thanks again for inviting me to participate and please give my best wishes to PSR.

David Nathan, MD