Ellenbogen speaks on head injuries in youth, the NFL, military: co-chair of the NFL Head, Neck and Spine Committee since 2010.

PROVIDENCE – When Brown alumnus Dr. Richard G. Ellenbogen, MD’83, was a second-year medical student, he found himself bored and proffered his resignation letter to then-Dean Stanley M. Aronson, MD. At this year’s Brown commencement weekend, Dr. Ellenbogen, who delivered the Charles O. Cooke, MD, Distinguished Visiting Lectureship, recalled the incident. “The Silver Fox put the letter aside without opening it, listened to me, and said: ‘I want you to perform to the best of your ability. That’s all I ask of any medical student at Brown – to live up to the ability that brought you here,’ and he summarily dismissed me.” Alpert Medical School Dean Edward Wing, MD, welcomed Dr. Ellenbogen and noted the Cooke lecture spotlights branches of medicine which “hold promise of significant and lasting benefit to medical education at Brown and in the community.” Dr. Ellenbogen, chairman of the Department of Neurological Surgery at