The Fellow ceremonial as you are witnessing tonight started in this manner. Dr. John Sevastos was President of ACGP in 1975-1976 and had the opportunity to attend the Conclave of Surgeons at which time he witnessed the procedures. When he came back from the meeting, he talked to me with a lot of enthusiasm about the fact that we ought to consider revamping our present ceremony. And, after considerable phone conversations, we decided to make an effort to see what we could do about it. We submitted a plan to the Board of Governors and decided we could proceed without any money forthcoming from the College. Then there was the problem of how we were going to fund this project. It so happened that we had an occasion to meet with Mr. Marvin Anzel of E.R. Squibb Pharmaceutical Corporation regarding the preceptor program which they had sponsored for us for quite some time. The College had its mid-year meeting in New York in July, 1976.
Mr. Anzel hosted the Board of Governors dinner and at that time I spoke to him about sponsoring the fellow ceremony. He promised to talk to the President of E.R. Squibb and said he’d get back to me. A meeting was arranged for Dr. Sevastos and myself to meet with Mr. Bongiovanni, President of Squibb Pharmaceutical Corporation.
Dr. Sevastos came to Harrisburg and we drove to Princeton, New Jersey and met Mr. Bongiovanni, a robust, hearty and most interesting individual. In the course of the conversation we somehow got to talking about opera and evinced quite an interest on the subject and apparently this broke the ice. Mr. Bongiovanni then turned to Mr. Anzel and told him to give us what we needed to complete the project. We sat with their designer and evolved the mace design and also a banner.
Having crossed the first barrier, we next turned to the details of the ceremony. And, first on the agenda was the music that would be used. This was very important because we felt that something was needed that would fit into the solemnity of the occasion and still not be funeral. The old chestnut of “Pomp and Circumstance” by Sir Edward Elgar, which we are all familiar with, having been played at our High School and College graduations, was “old hat”. John Phillips Sousa band marches are great for military and razor sharp precision but were too rapid for our needs. I opted for the “War March of the Priest from Athalia” by Felix Mendelssohn. This piece had a special cadence and rhythm that lent itself to the dignity and solemnity for a ceremony that provided for a proper entry. We had a serious problem trying to find a tape of a war march. Finally, Carolyn Haman found the tape after some hard looking and shopping in Dallas.
The next problem had to do with the lighting. Dr. Sevastos was definite in his ideas of proper lighting and spent a lot of time with the operator of the spotlights and in repeated rehearsals until he was satisfied.
On the night of the ceremony, Dr. Sevastos and I were as nervous as expectant parents because we were informed by the Chief of the Executive Staff that the whole project would not work. Letters had been sent to previous recipients of the Fellows award and invited them to participate in the procession. About 30 or 40 responded.
Time for action had arrived. Grand Marshall Sevastos lined us up two by two. As President of ACGP, I walked with the Grand Marshall. He gave the signal to “go”. The house lights dimmed and the War March started. I muttered to Dr. Sevastos, “Well, here we go”. We stepped into the darkened aisle. The spot picked us up and we made a right turn down the long center aisle towards the head table. At first, all we heard was the music as we marched and then about one-third of the way down the center aisle we suddenly heard a loud spontaneous applause that built up to a crescendo until we all reached our assigned place.
What an emotional moment! The only other event to equal it so far as my relations with ACGP/ACOFP was the dedication of our office building and the history of that program makes for another interesting story.
Suffice it to say, when we arrived at the head table, I looked at Dr. Sevastos’ glistening eyes and he at mine. No words were spoken, we just shook hands and sat down.
