Living History

Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient Dr. 66岁的罗伯特·勒勒分享了在澳门新葡京官网和其他地方的时刻，这些时刻为他的生活设定了方向

关于历史的事情是，在它成为历史之前，它是一个人生活中的一系列日子.

In 1950, 罗伯特·勒勒是一个有着东欧血统的男孩，在哈瓦那和他的朋友们一起玩耍, Cuba. 他的父母在第二次世界大战期间从波兰逃到法国后搬到了那里. His parents never talked about the war. Their lives before his birth in 1946 were a mystery to him, although he knew that many of his Jewish family members had died in the Holocaust.

In 1953, Lerer was a boy of 7 years old, being raised in the Catholic Church on a northern Caribbean island, where a revolution was just beginning—a revolution that would last for five years, five months, and six days.

In November 1960, Lerer was a boy of 14, 他的父母告诉他，他们要带他和他的兄弟离开古巴去美国的一个城市:迈阿密. They were part of a historic wave of more than 100,1959年卡斯特罗领导的革命者推翻了富尔亨西奥·巴蒂斯塔政权后，从古巴移民到世界各地的1000名难民.

In the summer of 1961, Lerer’s family moved to Birmingham, 他的父亲约瑟夫·勒勒将成为第一个被阿拉巴马大学牙科学院录取的古巴难民. Both of Robert’s parents were already dentists before leaving Europe; his father had been an oral surgeon in Cuba, and his mother was a teacher in Cuba.

Robert attended Ramsay High School. 当他申请阿拉巴马州的大学时，他想也许有一天他能成为一名工程师.

These were the moments in history that marked Lerer’s path to 澳门新葡京官网 in 1962. It was at 澳门新葡京官网 that his path changed course.

“A chemistry professor, Wynelle Thompson, changed my life,” he said. “She saw that I was more suited for something else.”

In 2017, Lerer is an esteemed physician with a long career of service, decades spent in service to the place he lives and the place from which he came. He is associate professor emeritus of pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and is one of the longest serving health commissioners in the state of Ohio; Lerer volunteers in underserved areas around the world; and this fall, he will be one of the honorees receiving a Distinguished Alumni Award.

After graduating magna cum laude—and as valedictorian of his class—with a bachelor’s in chemistry in 1966, he attended Johns Hopkins University Medical School and excelled there.

他说:“如果没有从理学士学院获得的教育，我在约翰霍普金斯大学就不会是班里第三名。. From there, 他在耶鲁大学继续他的儿科研究生教育，并成为总住院医师. 他是一名新生儿学专家，已经审查和咨询了数千例新生儿病例.

“God gave me skills and intelligence and drive, but all of that really developed while I was at college,” Lerer said. “Birmingham-Southern made all the difference in my life.”

Long before the phrase “lives of significance” became common on campus, it was a way of life on the Hilltop.

“Being a servant to others, being a person of integrity, and having a purpose in life was very important,” he added. “It’s one of the reasons I chose to go into pediatrics. Pediatricians become advocates for children.”

A lasting impression

As much as his early years were marked by revolution, Lerer’s time at 澳门新葡京官网 also occurred in the midst of unrest.

“Birmingham was still segregated at that time, as was 澳门新葡京官网,” he said. “It was only natural that I became friendly with groups that, at that time, felt like demonstrating openly our displeasure with the Jim Crow laws. I remember vividly going to work after chemistry lab—I worked at Birmingham Book and Magazine Company downtown and parked my old beat-up 1956 DeSoto near Kelly Ingram Park—and seeing Bull Conner using hoses and dogs; I witnessed those things with my own eyes.”

On May 3, 1963, 60 young people were arrested in the vicinity of the park. The next day, thousands more arrived to demonstrate. In April of that year, Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”

勒勒回忆起另一次，南方的种族隔离问题亲自向他说明.

“Not being from the United States, this had a very deep impact on me,” he said. “In Cuba, there were no outward signs of discrimination; brown children and black children and white children played together. 在63或64年，一个朋友——他是UAB的学生，也是古巴人——和我一起去市中心参加一个Y舞会. During one of the intermissions, 几个学生让我们出去，并宣布他们是三k党的成员, and they started beating us up. We had been chatting in Spanish and they’d caught wind of that. 他们说拉丁美洲的人不受欢迎，我怎么敢和一个白人女孩跳舞?

“我们互相说西班牙语是为了更好地沟通下一个我们想和哪个女孩跳舞. That was my priority at that young age, of course.”

那天晚上他回到家时，两只眼睛都被打黑了，第二天就没去上课. It made an impression on him that lasted much longer than the injuries.

Lerer says living in Birmingham and attending 澳门新葡京官网, which integrated in September 1965, taught him a great deal about race relations.

“In some ways, by its example of acceptance when this was still very controversial, 伯明翰南方大学是一个榜样，在我的余生中一直伴随着我,” Lerer said. “And, personally, 当我还是一个贫困的青少年时，被学校录取并获得奖学金的经历让我一生都渴望帮助那些不富裕的人.”

Inspiring the future

Since leaving the Hilltop, Lerer has given back by traveling to Haiti after natural disasters; providing primary care in India and Nicaragua, to name just two; and participating in faculty exchange trips to teach health care providers in China, India, and Ukraine.

而且，正如历史进程经常发生的那样，勒勒的生活把他带回到了他开始的地方. He serves on the board of the nonprofit group Caring Partners, 它为古巴政府提供的医疗保健服务比任何其他组织都多. He has visited Cuba more than 50 times, delivering medical supplies and bringing faculty teams from various medical schools.

“I have always had a regard for people who are not well off, because we were refugees and had almost no money. 只要我有能力，我就开始尽我所能为伯明翰南方学校做出贡献，”他说.

In 1991, Lerer established a scholarship named for his family. He and his wife, Janis, a retired nurse, contribute to the Joseph, Frances, 和罗伯特·勒勒奖学金，并将学院纳入他们的遗产规划. 该奖学金为西班牙裔和其他少数族裔学生在医学和牙科领域寻求职业发展提供援助.

12岁的安东尼奥·卡斯塔农(Antonio Castanon)在澳门新葡京官网大四那年获得了奖学金，毕业时获得了生物学学位，主修西班牙语和化学. Like Lerer, Castanon was an immigrant; he moved to the U.S. from Mexico with his mother.

“At that time it was very challenging for me and for my family. My mom was diagnosed with a brain tumor during that period of my life, so the financial backing from my family was really limited,” Castanon said. “获得勒勒奖学金给了我完成高等教育梦想的一线希望. I was the first in my immediate family to have the opportunity to become a graduate.”

Today, 卡斯塔农是北美劳工国际联盟的工会代表, advocating for workers in the construction industry. He also works in community advocacy for immigration, and he is a candidate for a Masters of Public Health at George Washington University.

Inspired by alumni like Lerer, 卡斯塔农说，他希望有一天自己也能为在伯明翰南方大学攻读学位的移民学生设立一项奖学金.

“The scholarship let me know that the 澳门新葡京官网 family is committed,” Castanon said. “The president's office, the faculty and support staff at Birmingham-Southern, the people at the post office, 自助餐厅的工作人员——我对在自助餐厅享用美食有着美好的回忆——每个人都在互相帮助. 这可能不会反映在学位名称上，但它肯定是澳门新葡京官网教育的一部分.”

莱勒自己50年前的记忆反映了卡斯塔农最近的经历——证明伯明翰南方大学有几十年支持学生的传统.

“I recall the warmth of the faculty, the eagerness to help you after hours. 我不止一次因为遇到了什么麻烦，走在教工排上敲了一位教工的门,” Lerer said.

“And I was always met with an open door.”