Central High School of Philadelphia
Class 226

DIRECTORY OF THE 226th CLASS OF
CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL

(1967)




Hosted by Harvey Abrams, BS, MAT, Ph.D/abd

Ed Weber's Page


created January 5, 2013
updated January 7, 2013
relocated July 8, 2015
updated April 7, 2017
The following autobiography and photograph
was sent to me by Ed Weber





Abbreviated Autobiography (as of spring, 2010)
by Edward C Weber
226


After a slightly extended stay at Temple University, I attended the Philadelphia College of “Osteopathic” Medicine. Some years later I had the opportunity to express my opinion in a letter to the editor in JAMA, that the continued separation of “osteopathic” medical institutions and organizations from the mainstream of those using the MD degree was a political, not scientific issue. Ignoring that “osteopathic” designation, I did my post doctoral training at the Albert Einstein Medical Center, first a year in general surgery and then a three year residency in Diagnostic Radiology. I didn’t get that far from Central High.

During my stay at Einstein, I married Ellen Singer, who had graduated from Girls High and had gone on to Case Western for a degree in nursing. She had stayed in Cleveland, working in the burn unit at the Metropolitan Hospital. We joke about our arranged marriage. Our parents had actually double dated before they were married. When I told my mother that I had a six week medical school clinical rotation at The Cleveland Clinic, she set me up with the daughter of very old friends. With our marriage approaching, Ellen moved back to Philadelphia and got a master’s degree in nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. Our honeymoon was a week aboard a 37 foot sloop (we “bare-boated” with no crew but us) in the British Virgin Islands.

I wrote an article while at Einstein that was accepted for publication by JAMA, and had an offer of an academic position at Jefferson. However, I wanted a different life style, off of the east coast and away from the pressures of academia. Ellen and I moved to Fort Wayne, IN in 1980 and are still here thirty years later. I am up for parole soon.

Life took a turn for the better AND worse with the birth of our son Matt in 1981. He was born with congenital limb defects that changed our lives deeply, but not nearly as much as his intelligence and goodness has enriched our lives. From his first day, he was wide-eyed and responsive. I could go on and on about the evidence of his intelligence when he was young, but I do have some compassion for anyone reading this.

When Matt starting walking, he needed the aid of a walker (festooned with bells, horns, lights and a battery powered laser blaster) in addition to his leg braces. His unsteady ankles (no fibulas) were one of the major problems. However, when he was no more than about 5, we discovered a solution to his ankle instability: ski boots. He literally could ski better than he could walk. Thirty surgeries or so later and he no longer needs braces or a walker. When the snow is good, he can ski difficult black diamond runs with me in Big Sky Montana, where we have a home. If any of you reading this are fans of science fiction writer Neal Stephenson, the engraving on Matt’s new skis is “Deliverator.”

In 1985, our daughter Jackie was born. In the private school the kids attended, she was often in the academic shadow cast by her brother and sometimes getting short-changed in the parental attention department when Matt was undergoing yet another surgery. I don’t think that she was upset when Matt dropped out of school after tenth grade. Jackie proved her academic worth with acceptances to several excellent schools and attended Wellesley. She majored in Cognitive Science. If anyone reading this knows what that is, please let me know. Jackie went on to get a master’s degree in Human Computer Interaction from Carnegie Mellon. I am sure that many of you know about the famous “last lecture” by Randy Pausch. Jackie was attending that lecture. She is now doing computer consulting work, and is engaged to be married. She and her Matt (pain in the butt that we have two Matts, but this one refused to change his name) just bought a home in Beachwood, a suburb of Cleveland.

Now back to our Matt. He dropped out of school after tenth grade to go to college. He attended what has been, for nearly a half century, the nation’s only “early college,” Simon’s Rock, which is part of Bard College. After two years there, he was accepted for transfer as a college junior to Stanford, MIT, and Brown. I have always wanted the bumper sticker “My kid turned down Stanford and MIT.”

Matt majored in mathematics and french literature. At graduation, he won top honors from the french literature department and won the top prize for music composition from the music department, pissing off a bunch of music majors. He then spent a year doing volunteer work with AmeriCorps, followed by a position as a New York City Teaching Fellow. He taught in one of the worst high schools in the Bronx, while earning a master’s degree in math education. He is now teaching in a private Jewish high school on the west side of Manhattan. He will soon receive a master’s degree in music composition. As I write this, we are looking forward to a concert of his music, including a new saxophone sonata, to be performed at Hunter College next month. Guess who is paying for the professional musicians? I also tell people that I am going to be standing on Times Square offering $20 to anyone who will attend the concert.

When not being the Dad, I have done a little work as a diagnostic radiologist in private practice, and have tried to enjoy the outdoors. For a long while our “lake cottage” was a sailboat in Lake Michigan. Our last boat was a a 42’ french-built sloop called the “Carpe Diem.” Every once in a while the kids tell me that they miss the boat. As a family, we logged about 4,000 nautical miles around Lake Michigan. The kids have been at the helm while we sailed under the Mackinac Bridge. The boat was sold when Matt began several years of major reconstructive surgery that involved us having an apartment in Baltimore.

Ellen and I celebrated my 50th at 19,341’, after six and a half days of uphill work, followed by a day and half to come down. Worth every step! I haven’t had total good luck with the old machinery: five spinal surgeries and a shiny new hip. But I keep going and did ski about 35 days this past season I still ski the bumps and the deep and steep stuff, and I am sure to have voided the warranty on the hip. The Montana thing has become important to us: after the kids were gone, we downsized in Fort Wayne and put an addition onto the house in Big Sky. I don’t know how many might read this, but if you would like to visit Big Sky, we have no indoor plumbing, heat the house with the candles that we read by, and eat nothing but berries and bark. To get to our house means going through miles of snow drifts and you might not get out until the snow melts in June. Actually, May is a good month for a visit, when we go into Yellowstone when the bison are calving. We go into Yellowstone about 6 times a year, and have gone twice up to Glacier NP.

This past September, to celebrate my 60th, Ellen and I hiked up to the highest point in the UK, the summit of Ben Nevis, two days before I gave lecture at the Medical School of the University of Glasgow. At 4409’ this was not quite the summit of Kilimanjaro. I suppose for my 70th I might be down to a hike around an indoor shopping center. And for my 80th, I might be happy to reach the refrigerator on foot.

For twenty years, I have been lecturing in radiology and anatomy at the Indiana University School of Medicine - Fort Wayne. For three years I served as course director for the second year Introduction to Clinical Medicine. I was lead author of “Netter’s Concise Radiologic Anatomy” that was published in 2008. It is now being translated into its seventh language, Mandarin. This spring, our second book will be published, “Medical Imaging of Normal and Pathologic Anatomy.” I’ve had several other publications along the way, but still consider myself basically a private practice general radiologist.

Retirement is on my mind lately, but financial reality interferes. However, if a very old friend from Philadelphia, now in Durango, ever pays me back, and if my mother-in-law is not immortal…

Ed Weber





January 7, 2013:
I received an email update from Ed today:


He now has full professor rank at the Indiana University School of Medicine although it took awhile and several committees, the board of trustees, etc., even though he is just part time faculty. His official titles are Adjunct Professor of Anatomy & Cell Biology and Volunteer Clinical Professor of Radiology and Imaging Sciences.

Ed has written a new textbook that was just published by F. A. Davis in Philadelphia: Practical Radiology - A Symptom-Based Approach.

Ed's daughter Jackie was married on his birthday in August, 2011, with the ceremony and reception at the Cleveland Botanical Garden.

His son Matt had another major orthopedic procedure, this time involving the family getting a condo in Florida near the hospital for 3 weeks while Ellen and Ed each took 2 week stints helping him out in NYC until he could take care of himself. He just got off crutches after 6 months and has a new job teaching part time.

In September, 2012 Ed visited the Beneteau factory in Marion, SC to see their new boat near the completion of its construction. It was on display (and they were on display) at the Annapolis Sailboat Show in October, 2012.
The original link to see their boat was here, but on April 7, 2017 the website changed , so if you want...try this at the Internet Wayback Machine. Go to: http://sailcarpediem.org



Please send any additional information to me at:

Harvey Abrams
PO Box 732
State College, PA, USA 16804
tel: (814) 321-4018
(mobile with voice mail for messages)
Olympicbks@aol.com


As of March 2016 I live and work in several locations:
State College, PA.,
Ft. Myers, FL.,
Vienna, Austria, and
Prague, Czech Republic
The best way to contact me is via email:
Olympicbks@aol.com

MY Web Sites:
www.chs226.org
www.harveyabramsbooks.com
www.iisoh.org
HLAbramsconsulting.com



This page was created January 5, 2013
This page was updated January 7, 2013
Relocated to chs226.org on July 8, 2015
This page was revised April 7, 2017
hab/chs455

Flag Counter


LINKS


page 1 - http://chs226.org/ (CHS226 "entry" page or "home" page)
page 2 - http://www.chs226.org/CHS226.html (Introduction/dedication page, announcements)
page 3 - http://www.chs226.org/CHS226Directory.html (Class Directory, The 226th Class in alphabetical order, all 482+ classmates)
page 3a - http://www.chs226.org/CHS226questionnaire.html 226 Class QUESTIONNAIRE. Please go here, fill out and return to Harvey.
page 3b - http://www.chs226.org/CHS226missingclassmates.html CHS226missingclassmates.html.
page 4 -- http://www.chs226.org/226_Best_List-3.pdf (Zach's 28 page master list [pdf] the entire class with contact information)
Pages 005 to 500+ -- Links to individual pages for each classmate. Go to the Class DIRECTORY (page 3) for these linked pages.


Contact us
Send 226 Class news to: Reunion Organizer & Class Rep:
Harvey Abrams
PO Box 732
State College, PA USA 16804
email: Olympicbks@aol.com
(814) 321-4018
Zachary Rubin
(215) 321-6905
email: zrubin2@verizon.net
email: zrubin2@verizon.net



Contact the Central HS Alumni Association
The Associated Alumni of the Central High School of Philadelphia
PO Box 26580
Philadelphia, PA 19141-6580
tel: (215) 927-9550 -- fax: (215) 276-5823
email: chsalumniphl@aol.com
website: http://www.centralhighalumni.com

Copyright © 2013, 2017 Harvey Abrams. All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the expressed written permission of the author. Or the wrath of Zeus will be upon you.