Robert Charles Jimerson – 50th Reunion Essay

Robert Charles Jimerson

221 Roscoe Rd.

Charlotte, VT 05445

ljimerso@wcvt.com

802-425-2497

Spouse(s): Lorna (1975)

Child(ren): Rebecca (1976), Katrina (1978), Amber (1981)

Grandchild(ren): Bryn (2012), Corbin (2014), Kai (2014), Sabel (2016), Iclyn (2018)

Education: Yale Med ’74, Yale Psychiatry ’78

Career: Private practice ’78-’88. ‘88 to present, Medical Director of Community Mental Health, Middlebury VT. ‘88 to present, consulting psychiatrist to Middlebury College

Avocations: Skiing, tennis, golf, sailing, fishing, horses & dogs, gardening, logging

College: Berkeley

I am writing from my home in Vermont, as a profuse nor’easter cascades snow on the surrounding forest, meadows, and hills. Today, two of our four grandchildren are over. If the snow lets up, I’ll head south to Middlebury and check in at the community mental health center where for the past 30 years I have been the medical director. Of course, hard to think of office work, as I am stoked for several days of epic skiing at our retro-mountain base, Mad River Glen, where we still ascend to the summit on the meditative single chair. And as Vermont’s bipolar winter merges into snowy early spring, the whole family is tuned in high readiness for the imminent birth of a new baby.

So, in the midst of life streaming forward, I am nudging myself to look back at my late adolescent passage at Yale College. Of course, Yale began with idealistic pride in joining a prestigious college. However, by graduation Yale’s traditions were swirling in change, as was I. A memory stands out that captures my experience of shifting consciousness which happened as revered Professor Richard Sewall put his lecture notes aside and played the Beatles just released “A Day in the Life”, and in so many words let us know the music blew his mind and opined that something special was happening here. Not so long thereafter with a handful of Yale med school friends I would be ready to rinse the acrid sting of tear gas from the eyes of demonstrators at the potentially apocalyptic 1970 May Day Panther rally in New Haven.

Not surprisingly, focusing on med school basic sciences in the immediate aftermath of college graduation was challenging, but fortunately Yale Med gave me permission to explore. After an obstetrics rotation at Oxford, I hopped on a Norton 750 and trekked through Europe to North Africa. Once back at Yale Med, I engaged with a tolerant and understanding psychiatry faculty and soon thereafter launched my third Yale chapter in the psychiatry residency. At this time, fortuitously, I met my lifelong partner, Lorna, in front of the gates of old Berkeley College. Following residency we headed north to Vermont and discovered a community of friends looking to connect to the land and each other. Psychiatry remains compelling, as my energies have become invested in relational continuity and community networking. And most significantly, captivating family years have more recently evolved to the transformative experience of grandparenting

So, the approaching fiftieth, as we have collectively experienced, has stirred lots of memories and reflections. Going forward, I would like my Yale years to remain a catalyst in my pursuit of meaning, understanding and a more cooperative and tolerant world.