LANSDOWNE – ALDAN HIGH SCHOOL
GOLDEN FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY REUNION 2006

Class of 1956
"Lords & Ladies"

www.lansdownealdan.com
Lansdowne, PA

Bingham, William

This biography of Bill Bingham is submitted in loving memory of an old friend.  It is also a cautionary tale of what can happen when we lose touch with those who have influenced our lives in a meaningful way.  After almost 40 years of no contact, I set out to find Bill on the internet, never imagining that he would be in the final stages of the illness that claimed his life. Our reunion was wonderful, but all too brief. - Submitted by Bob Houck

William F. Bingham, MD

Bill Bingham was a high achieving and well-rounded contributor to LAHS and to the class of 1956. A member of the Garnet & Gray staff for 4 years, he was editor-in-chief as a senior. He captained the track team, was a Scott’s HiQ participant and a two-year member of the National Honor Society.

Bill graduated from Franklin & Marshall College with distinction in 1960 and received a U.S. Navy scholarship to what was then called Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He attended medical school as a commissioned officer, completed his internship and served most of his 5-year commitment to the naval service at the Philadelphia Navy Yard hospital.

After graduating from F&M, Bill married LAHS classmate Tish Henderson. They have two daughters. Sarah (Sally) is a senior administrator for the 9^th US Circuit Court in San Francisco.  Kate is a physician’s assistant in the Hartford, CT, area.

With his Navy commitment completed, Bill and his family lived in Northern New Jersey while he undertook a surgical residency at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. They then moved to New Haven, CT, where Bill completed neurosurgical studies at the Yale University medical center.

In his mid-thirties, Bill was finally ready to begin private practice as a neurosurgeon. He spent 8 years with a family-owned medical group in La Crosse, WI, before joining a former classmate’s practice in Connecticut. After several years there he accepted an offer from a practice in Midland, TX, where he also served as an adjunct professor at the Texas Tech University medical school.

After he and Tish were divorced, Bill remarried and moved to Minneapolis, MN where he enjoyed another thriving surgical practice before being diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Recognizing that he would ultimately be unable to continue as a surgeon, he enrolled in a 3-year psychiatric residency at the University of Oregon medical school in Portland

Upon graduation and certification, he than practiced as a staff psychiatrist at the Veterans Administration Hospital in the Portland area. Multiple sclerosis took its inevitable and insidious toll upon his body until he was no longer able to handle the physical demands of independent living. He spent the last six years of his life in a managed residence, where he died in 2002.

Bill was the recipient of numerous academic and professional awards. He was recognized by his colleagues as a highly skilled physician with a genuine commitment to the well-being of his patients. In addition to his daughters, he is survived by his younger brother Bob, also an alumnus of LAHS, who is a longtime hospital administrator.

Writer’s Note: Bill and I were best friends during most of our high school years. We were on the Garnet & Gray staff together, wrote comedy scripts for an afternoon radio show on radio station WIP, performed skits at pep rallies and assemblies and spent many hours shooting hoops (and the breeze) at his house on Essex Avenue.

We were out of touch for more than 40 years. When I tracked him down on the internet in early 2001, he had lost control of many physical functions but had retained his intelligence and wicked sense of humor.

Aided by a bedside interpreter, we were able to enjoy several lively telephone conversations during which we shared the stories of our lives and reminisced about our LAHS years. Additional details cited above were provided to me by his brother Bob and his former wife Tish before her own untimely death.