#MoversandShakers @BruceJHillmanMD #DrBruceJHillman #Radiology #Radiologist @UVA @UVAMensHoops @RANZCRcollege @GaleSoBe @Princeton @UofR @Harvard @UofA Dr. Bruce J. Hillman Radiologist Extraordinaire, Heath Services Researcher, Clinical Trialist, Institutional and National Physician-Leader and Author Our Coverage Sponsored by Cosmopolitan Dental, Official Dentist of Whom You Know @GaroNazarianDDS #cosmopolitandental #loveyoursmile
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Over his 40-year career, Dr. Bruce J. Hillman has distinguished himself as a health services researcher, clinical trialist, institutional and national physician-leader, mentor to successive generations of accomplished academic physicians, and as an author of critically lauded narrative nonfiction. Born in 1947 and raised in South Florida, he received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1969 and his medical degree from the University of Rochester in 1973. He trained in diagnostic radiology and biomedical imaging research at Harvard’s Peter Bent Brigham Hospital.
Dr. Hillman views his career as a succession of unusual opportunities for which he was uniquely suited to succeed. Establishing himself as a talented clinician-investigator, he rose rapidly through the ranks at the University of Arizona, from his initial appointment as an assistant professor in 1978 to becoming professor and vice-chair of radiology in 1985. What occurred next Dr. Hillman describes as epiphany. He awoke one morning in 1983 with the absolute certainty he was on the wrong track. Everything he had accomplished to that moment was prelude to what he was destined to do with his future. In 1985, he emerged from a year’s sabbatical at the RAND Corporation as one of just a few radiologists with training in health services research and policy. His 1989 research publication in the New England Journal of Medicine put to rest the notion that physicians were immune to financial blandishments. Non-radiologist physicians who owned imaging equipment ordered imaging examinations more than twice as often as physicians who did not own imaging equipment and referred their patients to radiologists. The research influenced federal legislation barring the practice of self-referral for imaging services in some settings.
In 1992, the University of Virginia recruited Dr. Hillman to be the chair of their Department of Radiology. He occupied the chair for 11 years, during which he also served four years as president of the nearly 600-member University of Virginia physician practice plan. During his tenure, he oversaw the development of his department’s research mission from no federal funding on his arrival to more than $2 million annually and a top 20 national ranking among radiology departments. Once again, fortune favored Dr. Hillman with a special visitation. The American College of Radiology asked Dr. Hillman to respond on its behalf to a National Cancer Institute request for applications to establish a national clinical trials network and conduct clinical trials of medical imaging as it relates to cancer. The NCI selected Dr. Hillman’s proposal and initially funded the effort at $23 million over five years. By the time Dr. Hillman concluded nine years as the founding chair of the American College of Radiology Imaging Network, ACRIN had received $200 million to involve more than 100 institutions in recruiting 70,000 subjects into 30 clinical trials. Three very large screening trials proved the value of medical imaging in reducing the death rate from cancers of the breast, colon, and lung.
In 2003, the American College of Radiology called again. Dr. Hillman resigned the chairmanship of his department to found and become the editor-in-chief of a new medical journal. Over the next 15 years, the Journal of the American College of Radiology established itself as one of the three most read publications in radiology. Focusing on the missions of the sponsoring ACR – health services research and policy, training and education, data science, leadership, and clinical practice management - JACR established a unique and successful niche addressing the interests of more than 30,000 subscribers. The publication’s impact factor rose during every year of the journals’ existence. As he had as chair of his department and the chair of ACRIN, Dr. Hillman prepared a talented successor, Dr. Ruth Carlos, to assume the leadership of the Journal. He counts among his trainees four radiologists who became chairs of academic departments and many others who have become leaders in academic and organizational radiology.
Now Professor Emeritus at UVA, Dr. Hillman retired from active involvement in academic medicine in 2019 to focus on his second career as an author of narrative nonfiction. He credits his start in creative writing to his attendance at a midweek personal enrichment session on creative writing led by UVA associate dean, Dr. Sharon Hostler. The final exercise of the two-hour session was to expand upon a sentence of Dr. Hostler’s invention as the beginning of a novel. Dr. Hostler phoned a week later. She was a member of a six-woman writing critique group that met monthly to comment on each other’s work. They thought they might be ready to add a man to their group. Would he be interested in auditioning? He was. With the group’s tutelage, Dr. Hillman’s writing improved enough for him to publish eight short stories in literary journals. He moved on to commercially publishing book-length works of nonfiction, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: How Medical Imaging is Changing Health Care (2010, Oxford University Press), The Man Who Stalked Einstein: How Nazi Scientist Philipp Lenard Changed the Course of History (2015, Lyons press) and A Plague on All Our Houses: Medical Intrigue, Hollywood, and the Discovery of AIDS (2016, ForeEdge Press). He is now working on Here’s Looking at You: a Collaborative Memoir of Radiology in its Golden Era of Innovation. In addition, his hard drive is home to a completed medical mystery manuscript, Prickly Business, for which he hopes to eventually find the time to market the book to literary agents and publishers.
Dr. Hillman has published nearly 400 research articles, medical reviews, and editorials and delivered more than 600 lectures around the world. He has been elected president of five medical societies, has been the editor of three medical journals, and mentored dozens of academic radiologists in both his own institution and elsewhere. For his efforts on behalf of his specialty, he has been awarded the gold medals of all of the major radiological societies and has been elected to honorary fellowship in the Royal College of Radiology, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiology, and the French Society of Radiology.
Dr. Hillman lives in Wake Forest, North Carolina, with his wife, Pam Wexler, her horse Lucy, their rescue terrier Lillebet, and once feral but now pampered cats, BusyBee, Mamacita, and Ratoncito. We are absolutely thrilled to present Dr. Bruce J. Hillman as our latest Mover and Shaker. Peachy Deegan interviewed Bruce for Whom You Know.
Peachy Deegan: What is your first medical memory?
Dr. Bruce J. Hillman: My first medical memory is personal, rather than professional. I was 12 years old when my mother woke my brother and me earlier than usual to tell us our father had died overnight of a heart attack. In that instant, I began to understand that life was fragile. There was only so much time and much to be accomplished.
What motivated you to become a doctor?
In addition to my father’s death, there was one other important influence. The father of my closest high school friend, Jane Grayson – pediatrician Dr. Robert Grayson – was the epitome of what a physician should be: intelligent, empathetic and dedicated to his patients. He became my role model.
You seem to have risen to the occasion every time when met with opportunity. What have you learned from this overall and what can you teach others about doing this?
Some have looked at what I’ve accomplished and call me “lucky.” I believe they are missing the point. While serendipity inevitably played some role, more important have been my actively seeking out new opportunities; keeping an open mind; willingness to accept risk; investing the time and money to acquire new skills; and relinquishing my comfort zone to try something new; and a history of accomplishment;
My advice: Learn to speak and write well and read critically. These are skills that will give you a leg up in any career. Know when you have unearthed all the necessary information and make a decision. Once you decide, leap in with both feet.
Who makes the best kind of doctor and what qualities do they possess?
There is no single set of qualities that distinguish a good doctor beyond the obvious – empathy, intelligence, dedication to improving the lives of patients, and a passion for hard work. A medical degree is a passport to an enormous variety of potential careers beyond traditional clinical practice, each requiring different aptitudes – research, organizational leadership, designing and implementing health policy, and advising financial services companies on possible investments are just a few examples of medical careers with differing personal requirements.
What was your childhood like and what was Florida like at that time?
I was among the first generation to be born and raised on Miami Beach. Until his death when I was 12, my father was the owner and manager of The Gale, a small, art deco, South Beach hotel. If you have seen the movie Hole in the Head (best known for the Oscar-winning song about the ant that moved the rubber tree plant), you can imagine my growing up under the awning on the porch fronting the hotel. In that era before South Beach was discovered by supermodels, celebrities, and B-grade royalty, we catered to elderly snowbirds. The men taught me pinochle and snuck me puffs on their cigars. The women ruffled my bright orange curls, pinched my cheeks, and told me about their grandchildren.
How did you like Princeton, what did you study there, and were you part of the Triangle Club, famous for having our favorite F. Scott Fitzgerald as a member?
Compared to other Ivy League colleges, there was little protesting on behalf of civil rights, women’s liberation, or ending the Viet Nam War. The admission of Jewish applicants, like myself (referred to in the quaint world of college admissions as urban applicants), were still subject to quotas. There were even fewer African-American students and no women on campus until the fall after I graduated (1969). Despite the prevailing biases, I met little outright antisemitism. I was invited to join Tower Club, one of the more prestigious eating clubs. Social acceptance proved to be my academic downfall. I spent too much time becoming a billiards champion and leading Tower Club’s intramural athletics teams.
I graduated the median student in my class. Despite my passivity, I received a remarkable education and learned skills that I believe have been critically important to my success. Yes, as I listed before: critical reading, cogent writing, and rational thought.
As for the Triangle Club - the proving ground not only for Scotty but also such worthies as Jimmy Stewart and Brooke Shield - the only way I could have gotten in would be if I had bought a ticket. I am tone deaf. In my only effort at organized singing, I was asked to lip-synch the words.
What was it like to study in Rochester and later go on to work at Harvard?
I am much indebted to both the University of Rochester and Harvard. I have already admitted that I had an undistinguished undergraduate career. The University of Rochester was the only medical school willing to take a chance on me. It was a great medical education in a harsh climate. It was at Rochester that I learned the hard lessons of delayed gratification and dedicated myself to learning. Harvard showed me a career path beyond community practice and prepared me to succeed in academic medicine, a career that has been both challenging and fulfilling.
What do you think about the challenges of the current healthcare climate in America and how should they be met within the industry, by government (or not) and by private businesses?
Whole books have been written on this question. There is no easy answer. It is simultaneously both a problem of health and a problem of money. What we have in the US, as opposed to most Western nations, is a patchwork non-system of federal, state, and local laws, further complicated by a large cast of payers, each insisting on its own forms, rules, which services they will or won’t pay for, and how much. We spend more on administering this non-system than any other country. Our physicians and access to high technology are among the best in the world, but there is enormous waste, and we are unable to organize ourselves into an efficient, effective, and affordable system that provides equitable access to all of our citizens. It is time to give a single-payer system (Medicare, or what have you) a chance to bring us alongside the rest of the world.
How have you seen radiology evolve over your career and how did you personally affect each of these effects to the industry?
As luck would have it, I currently am working on a memoir tentatively titled, Here’s Looking at You: A Memoir of Radiology in its Golden Era of Innovation. Radiology’s golden era and my 40-year career overlap in their entirety (1974-present). It was during this period that CT, MRI, and PET entered clinical practice. The book details the stories of invention of these technologies, how they developed into becoming the most significant advances in healthcare of the latter half of the 20th century, and the quest of a few heroes to preserve future innovation against impossible odds. Several agents have shown interest in representing the book to publishers, but I have yet to sign a contract, and I would be eager to have others take a look.
How can radiology be less stressful for patients?
While the inventions of CT, MR, and PET dramatically elevated radiologists to a central role in healthcare and provided us with handsome incomes, the sheer volume of examinations drove radiologists into darkened caves where they can work most efficiently, undisturbed. Few emerge from these chambers to speak with patients.
I believe this state of affairs has been bad for patients, the physicians who refer their patients for imaging examinations, and radiologists. Radiologists must reassume their roles as physicians to participate directly with patients in optimizing their care. The American College of Radiology, with which I have been involved in various leadership roles for more than 25 years, is actively promoting the need for radiologists to return to direct patient contact as an essential element of their practice.
How should the average patient be able to tell if their radiologist is reputable and better yet, one of the best?
There are no firm measures of excellence that encompass even a reasonable fraction of the important parameters of radiological practice. The Web-based assessors fall far short of providing accurate and important information. Although patients can access plain language explanations of imaging exams and their use, they may still feel uncomfortable about whether an imaging exam is truly needed.
Since nearly all imaging examinations are referred to radiologists by non-radiologist physicians, a physician’s recommendation is the best bet. I have a bias favoring academic physicians (academic physicians practice in university medical centers and outpatient facilities). Nearly all academic radiologists take additional years of training to subspecialize in an organ system or a specific imaging technology. There is such a large amount to know that it is virtually impossible for even the brightest radiologist to be expert in everything. That your radiologist has subspecialized may make a difference in your care. In addition, facility certification by the American College of Radiology is a distinction that sets imaging facilities apart from those that have either not sought certification or failed to pass quality standards.
Who are the best radiologists to go to in Manhattan and why?
My answer to the preceding question is the best I can do. It is simply my opinion and may not jive with the opinions of others. Succinctly stated, when your physician recommends you get an imaging examination, ask him/her to refer you to a radiologist who is a subspecialist in the technology or the organ system related to your specific problem and look for their ACR accreditation certificate. If you have further qualms, ask to speak with the radiologist before undergoing the exam.
Who are the best radiologists to go to outside of Manhattan and why?
Same response as to the previous question.
Please explain what a clinician investigator is for our international readers and your best memories of your time in Arizona.
A clinician investigator is a physician who both cares for patients and conducts scholarly work to expand upon medical knowledge.
When I arrived at the University of Arizona in 1978, the medical school and health sciences center were brand-new. It was remarkably freeing to arrive at Arizona after living with Harvard’s multilayered hierarchy and restrictive rules. The upside was that I could do almost anything that interested me and receive the credit for my successes. The downside was a lack of available mentoring. I received outstanding support from my chairman, Paul Capp, who helped me through some difficult situations. He also introduced me to radiology’s leaders, paving my way to leadership roles of my own.
In regards to your work in research and policy, did you also study law and if not how did what you learned about policies surprise you?
I thought about going to law school very briefly. I decided that my rebellious streak was not adaptable to the rigors of law school. The development of workable health policy requires the input of many talents: physicians, economists, health services researchers, lawyers, and interested members of the lay public among them. My one-year sojourn at the RAND Corporation acquainted me with how to assess public policy and how to conduct research into their effectiveness.
Please indicate whether these policies are all on a national basis or by state.
As I responded above, when it comes to healthcare, there is a confusion of national, state, and local policies. In my opinion, one of the central problems we face in better organizing and affording excellent healthcare is that politics seem more important than research in determining policy.
What do you love most about the University of Virginia?
The grounds are historic and beautiful; Charlottesville, the city, is small and welcoming; despite little financial help from the state legislature, the University is an oasis of learning when compared with many of its peer institutions.
Did you follow the men’s basketball team’s great success this year and what are your thoughts on it?
I’m a sucker for triumph over adversity stories, so I cried shamelessly when UVA eked out its narrow overtime victory in the finals against Texas Tech. I believe that UVA has a credible formula in balancing academics and athletics.
How did you successfully secure federal funding for your department at UVA?
Going from zero to top 20 was anything but easy. Few of the faculty members that I inherited when I arrived at UVA had the training necessary to consider applying for federal research grants. I arranged matches between my faculty and members of other departments and institutions. I stripped the department of unproductive researchers who had made little progress. And I hired some new faculty members who had shown signs of success in other institutions.
How would you explain how an effective clinical trial should be conducted and what are the biggest errors people make with those that are not effective?
Prior to ACRIN, few radiologists had any training in the design, organization, and conduct of clinical trials. High quality clinical trials of imaging technologies require diverse talents – radiologists, other physician specialists, statisticians, sociologists, epidemiologists, economists, and other methodologic specialists – with which radiologists have little familiarity. Failure to include these individuals in the design, conduct and analysis phases will doom most clinical trials. In addition to conducting key clinical trials, ACRIN trained a long-needed cadre of clinical researchers.
What have you loved most about your storied career in medicine?
What I have learned, is that I am much better at beginning things, nurturing them, and turning them over to others once they have matured than taking over others’ projects. I have loved growing from the ground up new organizational structures that I believe have enriched not only my specialty but all of medicine. These include pioneering health services research as a focus for an academic career; building an academic radiology department at the University of Virginia; founding the American College of Radiology Imaging Network for the conduct of clinical trials of medical imaging; and founding the Journal of the American College of Radiology. These structures remain viable. They are infrastructure to support the career development of the generations that follow.
How does one develop a medical journal like the Journal of the American College of Radiology and what do you know about doing it now that you wish you knew before you started it?
The most important thing in founding and making successful a new medical journal is to have a distinctive vision that separates the publication from all the journals that already exist. Given that there are over 100 English-language journals that in some way focus on medical imaging, it would seem almost impossible that any niche would remain unoccupied. Yet there it was. The extant journals mostly publish clinical research, clinical review articles, and case reports. Those that publish material on important non-clinical issues, like health services, education and training, practice management, data science, and leadership treat them mainly as sidelights. For 15 years, we built the Journal’s distinct brand, refused to infringe on the turf of other journals, and built a reputation for clarity of mission and a willingness to try almost anything new.
What are you proudest of in regards to the Journal of the American College of Radiology?
I am proudest of the fact that, despite naysayers (occasionally including myself), the JACR has proven to be a hit. Reader surveys give the Journal high marks. The impact factor rises annually. The editorial leadership of JACR has a strong relationship with the owning society built on editorial independence and mutual trust. The new editor. Dr. Ruth Carlos, the first woman to be editor-in-chief of any journal of a major radiology society, is carrying on the vision while continuing to experiment with new initiatives to further improve the journal.
What inspires the non-fiction you write now?
I love to write. I always knew that when I stopped working full time, writing would be something I could turn to that would keep me interested, creative, and engaged. As it turned out, I started writing earlier. About six years ago, the radiologists of Western Australia invited me to lecture in Perth. Raleigh to Perth is half-way around the world, so I booked passage for my wife and I to just keep going. We stopped in New Zealand, Australia, Turkey, and Israel before returning home. The flights are mostly long hauls… Very long hauls. By the time we landed Raleigh, I had written about two thirds of a murder mystery novel titled Prickly Business. At the suggestion of a college classmate, I sent it to literary agent Claire Gerus in Tucson, Arizona, which is the setting for the story. She told me that she no longer represented fiction, but she liked the way I wrote, and if I ever had an idea for a non-fiction book, to give her a call. Claire got me a $10,000 advance from Lyons Press to write The Man Who Stalked Einstein: How Nazi Scientist Philipp Lenard Changed the Course of History. The book was published in 2015, and was soon followed by A Plague on All Our Houses: Medical Intrigue, Hollywood, and the Discovery of AIDS. Both books were critically well received, but neither could be said to be a best seller. This is likely to be my lot. I write about what I find most interesting. Although I write the books to be both entertaining and educational – to read like a novel in the creative non-fiction genre – they are more serious books than many readers are interested in pursuing. I currently am writing another work of creative nonfiction, tentatively titled Here’s Looking at You, a memoir of my participation in radiology’s golden age.
Are all of your books academic publishings and if so do you aspire to venture outside academia?
Einstein, Plague, and my 2010 book, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: How Medical Imaging is Changing Healthcare, are intended to be read by lay audiences. The latter two are written as though they were novels, in the increasingly popular narrative non-fiction genre. I am using the same approach for my current project.
What are your writing ambitions and are you at all interested in fiction?
I still have that around-the-world novel that needs editing and an agent to promote it to publishers. I have been busy enough until now, working and enjoying my life, that it still sits on my hard drive, occasionally mysteriously appearing and begging for attention. I would be delighted to talk with any of your followers/subscribers who might have an interest in representing the book.
What should the world know about your wife, how does she make you happy and proud and how has she affected your work?
Before we married, Pam was a psychiatric nurse. Although I am her only remaining project, there is ample opportunity for her to exercise her skills. Her greatest pleasures are her animals, including her dressage horse Lucy. She was involved in editing both Einstein and Plague, listening to my reading what I’ve most recently written and offering her advice.
What should the world know about your animals respectively?
My terrier-mix Lillebet and former feral cat BusyBee are my occasional alter egos, anthropomorphized angel and devil, respectively. Over the last couple of years, they appeared with increasing frequency in my monthly editorials for the Journal of the American College of Radiology. I intend to post some of my more whimsical columns on my Web page.
Other than the obvious-to exercise and eat healthy, what should people be doing better to take care of their health?
I believe that most Americans underestimate the value of rest and sleep. I count myself among them. Hopefully I’ll do better as time moves along.
We are huge advocates of getting quality sleep in a good amount of hours and also are pro-naps; why do you think sleep is undervalued in our society?
Weird, huh? Honest to God, I wrote the answer to the previous question before responding to this one.
Do you like photography or are you “imaged-out” by your profession?
My involvement in creating some form of art has always been important to me. In high school and college, I made large-scale woodblock and linoleum prints. Once I owned a home, I set up a darkroom and imagined myself to be Ansell Adams. Ultimately, I moved on to large-scale digital printing. After that I tried wood-sculpting then went through a phase designing trout flies. Now it’s writing. I’m thinking this is probably it, at least for now. Even in retirement, there is only so much time.
What or who has had the most influence on your pursuit of excellence?
Any number of people have played important roles in shaping my life, but, obviously, my mother, first and foremost. People don’t get this ambitious without a pushy mother.
What are you proudest of and why?
Two things of equal importance, one professional and one personal: professional – the contributions I have made to my specialty that will live after me and continue to benefit future generations of radiologists; personal – one son, who, despite having a too often preoccupied father, managed to develop into a fine, productive, caring, and interesting human being.
What would you like to do professionally that you have not yet had the opportunity to do?
It depends what you mean by “professionally.” People tell me that I’ve done more than my fair share, and I believe they have my best interests at heart. I would one day like to be a best-selling author, but I’m starting very late in this new career and there’s only so much time.
What honors and awards have you received in your profession?
To summarize a quote spoken by a character in one of my books, there are those under-recognized individuals who tend the trees and there are those who reap its fruit and receive an unfair share of the glory. I have been one whose contributions have been very well-recognized. I could wish for nothing more in the way of Gold Medals, honorary fellowships, featured lectureships, and the friendship of interesting, accomplished individuals around the world. I have done my best to spread the wealth.
What one word best describes you and why?
Overachiever. There are low periods in every person’s life. In mine I consider the possibility that I am only a sham. Lucky. In the right place at the right time. The jury is still out on this question. I doubt that they will ever reach a verdict.
What do you take your sense of identity from?
The usual: my work, my family, my friends, what I do for enjoyment and pleasure.
What is your favorite place to be in Manhattan?
When it comes to Manhattan, I live in the past. Nothing will ever replace in my heart (or coronaries) the pleasure of pushing away the remains of the Carnegie Deli’s overstuffed tongue and Swiss cheese on rye sandwich (mustard and mayo, coleslaw, dill pickle).
And in Virginia?
Standing on a boulder in the middle of the Mormons River just outside of Charlottesville, twitching a bit of feather or fur at the end of my fly line.
What is your favorite shop in Manhattan?
Sad to say, I am not a shopper, even in Manhattan. When I come to New York, I mostly spend my time at concerts and museums then resting in a comfortable room before reengaging the cultural onslaught.
And in Virginia?
The Internet fulfills virtually all of my needs. When I need a new suit, I have an excellent tailor in Richmond.
If you could hire anybody who would it be and why?
Donald Trump… So I could have the pleasure of saying to the President, “you’re fired!”
What is your favorite drink?
Beefeaters martini, dry, straight up, jalapeno stuffed olives
What is the funniest thing that has ever happened to you at a cocktail party?
Not exactly a cocktail party, rather a small gathering of friends. One of them was more in his cups than I realized. He asked whether I needed another dollop of Lagavulin. I acknowledged that it couldn’t hurt. He missed the glass entirely, pouring half a bottle of chilled 16-year old ambrosia on my crotch.
What is your favorite restaurant in Manhattan?
Restaurant Daniel
And in Virginia?
The Inn at Little Washington
What is your favorite Manhattan book or favorite character in Manhattan literature?
The Great Gatsby
And in Virginia?
I’m going to take some liberties here by naming Cold Mountain. Technically, the story takes place in Western North Carolina, but it’s all Blue Ridge Mountains and North Carolina is the state in which I currently reside. Regardless, it’s a wonderful book.
Who would you like to be for a day and why?
Albert Einstein. Yes, I know he’s dead, but when he was alive, he was smart, whimsical, and sexy. Please extend my stay beyond just one day.
If you could have anything in Manhattan named after you what would it be and why?
The Empire State Building. Its shape speaks for itself.
And in Virginia?
The Shenandoah River, for its history, its majesty, and its serving as host to a thriving ecosystem.
What has been your best Manhattan athletic experience?
A crisp fall day running in Central Park (before my lower back and knees went)
And in Virginia?
Shooting a 78 on the University’s Birdwood Golf Course
What is your favorite thing to do in Manhattan that you can do nowhere else?
People watching on Fifth Avenue, near Central Park.
And in Virginia?
Touring a friend who has never seen Monticello through Jefferson’s home and gardens.
If you could have dinner with any person living or passed, who would it be and why?
Elizabeth Taylor. Why not?
What has been your best Manhattan art or music experience?
Seeing my first Broadway play as a college student at Princeton, with the young James Earl Jones starring in The Great White Hope
And in Virginia?
Seeing an aged but still commanding Placido Domingo in Die Valkirie as my first opera in the Kennedy Center. Yes, I know that the Kennedy Center is in Washington, but it’s less than a mile across the Potomac and if George Washington could throw a silver dollar across it,… Well, close enough.
What do you personally do or what have you done to give back to the world?
Other than what I’ve already described as having built in my work and siring a productive member of society, not much, but perhaps more than most.
What do you think is most underrated and overrated in Manhattan?
Overrated – the New York Knicks; Knick fans are still celebrating 1972 and 1973 for lack of anything more recent.
Underrated – The Cloisters. Ask most New Yorkers how to get there and thy respond with a quizzical look.
And in Virginia?
Overrated – Virginia ham; too tough and too salty to do more than take a bite and hide it somewhere when no one is looking.
Underrated – the Blue Ridge Mountains at sunset; their rugged beauty surprises with some new delight, ridge after ridge
Other than Movers and Shakers of course, what is your favorite WhomYouKnow.com column and what do you like about it?
I enjoy all of the literary columns: Awesome Authors, English Errors, Literary Peachy, Quotable Peachy, Read This ... They are interesting, educational and witty without the preachiness (Peachiness?) that often accompanies columns on language.
Note from the Editor: Rennie McQuilkin should take all credit for Peachy being literary!
What else should Whom You Know readers know about you?
For the past ten years, I have carried the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. The condition is relentlessly degenerative. Nonetheless, I continue to do everything that interests me… at a somewhat slower pace.
How would you like to be contacted by Whom You Know readers?
I can be reached by email at bjh8a@virginia.edu. My Twitter handle is @BruceJHillmanMD. My Website is www.BruceJHillmanMD.com.
