LANSDOWNE – ALDAN HIGH SCHOOL
GOLDEN FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REUNION 2006

Class of 1956
"Lords & Ladies"

www.lansdownealdan.com
Lansdowne, PA

 Robert S. Anderson

   Like most of us, I'm amazed to realize that 50 years have past since leaving LAHS! I was rather unusual in that I did not live in either Lansdowne or Aldan. My home was in Darby and my parents paid to send me to LAHS to improve my chances for a high quality education. This I received, as well as many happy memories. The following will bring you up to date on what has gone on during the subsequent years

   I graduated from Drexel (B.S. in 1961) in five years, thanks to the cooperative education program that provided job experience, as well as formal education. I was in the fledgling Biology program. The next several years were spent finding my wife (Lucy A. Macdonald) and working as a lab technician at Einstein Medical Center. After realizing the need for some more education, I enrolled at Hahnemann Medical College (M.S. in 1968) and the University of Delaware (Ph.D. in 1971, immunology).

   During this time, Lucy completed her graduate education at the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D. in 1968). Our next step was to move to Minnesota for post-doctoral fellowships, in my case with Dr. Robert Good, a noted immunologist who carried out pioneering work with bone marrow grafts to treat immunodeficient children. One of Dr. Good's scientific interests was the evolution of the immune response; this is where I fitted in. My entire career has been centered on research studies of comparative immunity, as related to questions of disease resistance, effects of exposure to environmental toxicants, and the immune systems of lower animals.

   So we busied ourselves for three years in freezing Minneapolis. Not only did we study, but we also brought Robert S., Jr. (1971) and Donald P. (1972) into the world. Dr. Good was offered the presidency of the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York because of the link between immunity and cancer. We were fortunate to be asked to join him at SKI, at the Walker Laboratory in Rye, NY. In 1982 the Walker Lab was closed in a move to consolidate the research by moving it all to the main facilities in NY City; a move that we found not to our liking. 

   Lucy found a position at the National Cancer Institute, where she is currently a section head. I applied my training to immunotoxicology in the Biotechnology Division of the US Army at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD. Later I became a Professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Studies, a post that I have held since 1986. This is a research branch of the University, so the teaching load is light, but the work depends on my ability to generate grant support. I have been lucky with the grantsmanship and have generally had a great time training graduate students and writing scientific papers. A nice perk of the work is the ability to attend meetings all over this country and in many foreign lands. It's also been fun to see our boys mature; one is a successful salesman, the other is a doctor. We also have two fine grandsons.

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   Robert S. Anderson, Ph.D.

   Professor

   University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science

   Chesapeake Biological Laboratory

   P.O. Box 38 Solomons, Maryland 20688-0038

   Telephone: 410-326-7247 FAX: 410-326-7210