I had the great pleasure of getting to know Chong Kong when we began our clinical rotations in 1974. … We were friends right from the start. I remember our searching the evening sky together from the hospital windows for a comet that was reportedly visible without a telescope. Returning to the hospital on Monday morning, I learned of Chong’s tragic drowning death while out boating on the weekend with one of our faculty members. I was crushed with the loss of a new friend. Chong Kong was a good and sweet man that I’ll always remember.”

Reid Coleman was my best friend during my medical school years at Brown. I think we became friends from the first day. We were cadaver mates in Anatomy and soon became almost constant study partners. Reid taught me essential survival skills, such as eating 25-cent packages of Kraft macaroni and cheese to reduce the grocery budget while filling my stomach. [E]ven though we pursued very different work paths, we each ended up doing informatics. In fact, he was named one of the country’s top 50 CMIOs in a prominent trade magazine. I was incredibly proud of him.”