Alumni Council news
Alumni Council's Wayne Borges is a powerful role model
W ayne H. Borges '41 is a grandfatherly man. Kindly, with a gentle demeanor and a ready smile, he can easily be envisioned in his role as doctor and teacher, making rounds, instructing medical students, and comforting the children and families whose lives, threatened by cancer, were in his care. Now retired from his career in teaching and research in the fields of pediatric oncology and hematology, he still evidences concern for young people as he talks about recruiting students he knows for Kenyon. It is clear that the College is an important piece in a life filled with important pieces.
"I was just a young boy from Cleveland," says Borges, when asked about how he chose Kenyon. "People didn't have as much mobility in those days, so I wasn't considering going too far away to school. My uncle was a graduate, and so was the neighbor's son, so I decided it would be a good place for me." As Borges recalls, the College was very small in those days--just three hundred students. "We did everything together," he says. "We all ate in the dining commons, and we did a lot of singing. Now the first-year class is larger than the entire student body was in my day."
Graduating from Kenyon with a biology major just ahead of the U.S. entry into World War II, Borges enrolled in medical school at Western Reserve University and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. He remained on inactive duty while completing medical school and then served with the Second Marine Division in the Pacific as a physician until 1946. He was called up again to serve in the Korean War from 1953 to 1954. In the interim, he completed a residency at Boston Children's Hospital and served as head of hematology for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "We spent a year and a half in Japan," recalls Borges. "My wife, who was also a physician, worked with children while I worked with adults. Not much was known in those days about the effects of radiation. What we learned was that those who survived nearly always developed leukemia."
Returning from Japan, Borges taught pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and then returned to Cleveland to teach at Western Reserve. From 1958 until 1963, Borges was at the University of Pittsburgh, after which he moved to Chicago, Illinois, to join the faculty of Northwestern University's medical school.
When asked what he believes are his most important contributions, Borges, a modest man, says he values the experience of being a part of various research groups. "I feel fortunate that my friends were colleagues and my colleagues were friends and we were able to study together and do some valuable research," he says.
While serving as chief of pediatric hematology and oncology at Northwestern, Borges also directed the medical school's Program on Ethics and Human Values. Originally proposed by a student, the ethics and human values course is now required in the sophomore year of medical school at Northwestern. "Many faculty members are involved," says Borges. "The course, which is case-related, is designed to teach students ethical and moral reasoning."
Shortly after the death of his first wife, Jane, in 1984, Borges retired from Northwestern and moved to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he and his family had enjoyed vacationing for many years. There, at St. John's Episcopal Church, he met his present wife, Molly.
"Wayne Borges is one of the most giving people I've ever met," says Jean Rankin P'95, who lives in Carlisle and attends St. John's. "We're very fortunate that he decided to retire here." Active in community work with families and children, he has cochaired the Bishop's Committee on Children and Family in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. He also serves on the Family Advocacy Committee for the National Episcopal Church.
In his leisure moments, Borges avidly pursues the sport of fly-fishing, one of the main attractions in his move to Carlisle. When asked about preparing the catch, Molly laughs. "Oh, he always throws them back," she says. "We would never eat our friends." Tying flies and casting them into a sparkling stream in the hope of catching a trout, though somewhat solitary occupations, seem fitting for a man whose life has been devoted to serving others.
Since his 1997 election to the Alumni Council, Kenyon has also been the beneficiary of Borges's concern. Previously an alumni admissions volunteer and a member of his fiftieth and fifty-fifth reunion committees, he is now turning his attention to marketing Kenyon to future generations of students.
His example will be persuasive.
--L.M.
Alumni-Parent Travel Program will explore Antebellum South
A lumni, parents, and friends are invited to explore the Antebellum South along the intracoastal waterways between Charleston, South Carolina, and Jacksonville, Florida, next fall. The cruise aboard the 100-passenger Nantucket Clipper will be held November 6-13, 1999, in conjunction with Denison and Ohio Wesleyan universities and the College of Wooster.
Travelers will enjoy an area of great charm and diversity that has remained relatively untouched by tourists. They will savor the passing scenery from the ship's deck, with peaceful views of waterfowl and wildlife, grand antebellum homes, and quaint fishing villages. They will also experience the grace and manners of the Old South's most historic and romantic cities--Beaufort, Charleston, and Savannah--and the beauty of Georgia's Golden Isles with their elaborate summer "cottages," while guest lecturers share insights on the historical, ecological, and cultural significance of the South.
For further information, please contact Jo Usher P'94 in the Office of Alumni and Parent Relations and Annual Funds at 740-427-5149.
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