Robert Gary Mennel, MD: a conversation with the editor.

Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent) 2006;19:374–385 B ob Mennel (Figure 1) was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on July 27, 1944, and grew up there. After attending parochial schools he went to St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia, graduating in 1966, and then to the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, graduating in 1970. His internship and residency in internal medicine were at the University of Rochester, Strong Memorial Hospital, in Rochester, New York; he finished in 1974. From there he went to the US Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia, where he served as a staff physician for 2 years. In 1976 Dr. Mennel went to Baltimore, Maryland, as a fellow at the Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. After finishing his 2-year training, he stayed on the faculty at the Johns Hopkins Hospital for an additional year before coming to Dallas in 1979 as a member of the oncology division of the Department of Internal Medicine, Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC), and he has been here ever since. Presently, Bob Mennel is associate director of medical oncology at the Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center. During his nearly 27 years at BUMC, Dr. Mennel has provided care to numerous cancer patients and has been extremely active in the teaching of internal medicine residents and fellows. He has written 20 peer-reviewed articles in medical journals. He and his lovely wife, Kathie, are the proud parents of 3 offspring. Bob Mennel is a very decent guy who has been a major player at BUMC for nearly 3 decades. William Clifford Roberts, MD (hereafter, Roberts): Dr. Mennel, I appreciate your willingness to talk to me and, therefore, to the readers of BUMC Proceedings. Could we start by my asking you to talk about your early memories, your family, and your siblings? Robert Gary Mennel, MD (hereafter, Mennel): I was born in July 1944 in Trenton, New Jersey (Figure 2), and lived there until college. My father was 1 of 4 children, and my mother, 1 of 9. My mother’s family had come from Poland; 2 of her siblings had been born in Poland. Her father came over first, and then he brought the rest of the family over around 1913. Roberts: Your mother was born in the USA? Mennel: Yes. My mother was next to the youngest of 9 children. My father’s father was from Switzerland and was orphaned early. Both his mother and father died of an infectious disease after arriving in the USA. My fraternal grandfather was raised by another family member. Both my mother and father grew up in the Trenton area. My father was a baker, and my mother’s relatives were butchers. We lived well as far as food went. We had many cousins in Trenton and spent a lot of time with them. I went to grade school at St. Raphael’s in Trenton. I went to high school in Philadelphia at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, and I stayed there for college (St. Joseph’s College). Both were all-male Jesuit schools. The Jesuits are a very academic order of priests in the Catholic Church. I have one brother, Alan, who is 4 years younger than I am (Figure 3). He also went to St. Joseph’s Prep and then to St. Joseph’s College. A group of 9 of us commuted every day from Trenton to Philadelphia on the Pennsylvania railroad, and then we hitchhiked to our school, which was not in the greatest neighborhood. I enjoyed St. Joe’s immensely (Figure 4). I was sorry that I had a 30-mile,