Chapter 01: The First Person to Go to College
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Description
In this segment, Dr. Podoloff briefly sketches his family background, noting when his family emigrated from Kiev, Russia to the United States. He also explains that he was the first person in his family to go to college. An uncle who was a proctologist was the only member of the family involved in the sciences or medicine.
Identifier
PodoloffD_01_20150402_C01
Publication Date
4-2-2015
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD, Oral History Interview, April 02, 2015
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Personal Background; Personal Background
Transcript
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay we're now officially recording. And I'm Tacey A. Rosolowski and I am interviewing Dr. Donald A. Podloff for the Making Cancer History Voices Oral History Project run by the Historical Resources Center at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Podoloff came to MD Anderson in 1986 as an associate professor in Radiology and Nuclear Medicine. Is that correct?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
It is correct.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Great. He served as Deputy Chairmen in the Department of Nuclear Medicine in the Division of Diagnostic Imaging at that time as well. Today he is the Director of Clinical and Translational Research in that division and this is the Division of Nuclear Medicine. Yes? No? What is it the division of?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
It is the Division of Diagnostic Imaging.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
And you skipped about ten and a half years when I was the Division Head of Diagnostic Imaging. You didn't say that.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Right. Okay. We will cover that later but I am happy to have you add that preview of coming attractions.
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
Right. It's just that there was a hole in my life. Laughter
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
My apologies for creating that hole. Alright. Dr. Podoloff also serves as Medical Director for the Center for Advanced Biomedical Imaging. And I am going to list your joint appointments, and this is always tricky. The Departments of Nuclear Medicine. Diagnostic Radiology and Clinical Systems Imaging.
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
Cancer Systems Imaging.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Cancer Systems Imaging. All in the Division of Diagnostic Imaging. Okay.
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
That is correct. I'm also the Director of Clinical Translation Research.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay. Great. This session is being held in Dr. Podloff's office in the Center for Advanced Biomedical Imaging in SCRB 3 and that's South Campus Research Building 3 on MD Anderson's South Campus also known as Research Park. And this is the first of two planned sessions. Today is April 2, 2015 and the time is about nine minutes after ten. So thank you, Dr. Podoloff, for agreeing to take part in all of this.
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
… most welcome.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
: … very much appreciated. And I wanted to start in the traditional place as I mentioned before we turned on the recorder which is really with basic background, personal background, educational background. So if you can tell me where you were born and when?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
I was born in the French Hospital in New York City on December 23, 1937 [Pause] at 9:30 in the morn, er, evening.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
[Laughter] Boy. You know all those details. Is that part of family history that was passed down?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
Yeah.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
That's cool. That's cool. Now where do you grow up?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
New York City.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay. And how long where you there? Your entire young life?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
Yes. I was there from the time I was born until I was about six years old. By that time we were in the midst of World War II and my parents moved out to Great Neck, Long Island to be with my aunt who had a big house and no husband ‘cause he was off in the service. So I spent two years in Great Neck, then we came back to New York City. Most of my childhood and young adult life I was at the Upper West Side of New York City.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, okay. And what did your parents do?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
My father was a salesmen of piece goods - things you make ladies underwear out of. My mother worked as a sales person and eventually as the manager of the Five Four shop at Lorde and Taylor on Fifth Avenue in New York City.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Was anyone in your extended family involved in the sciences or in medicine at all?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
Well, I had an uncle once removed who was a proctologist. But nobody else in the family. In fact, I think I was the first person in my family to go to college.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Really? Wow. Wow. That must have been a matter of great pride for the family I can imagine.
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
It was. The only thing that superseded it was getting into medical school.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, wow. Yeah. Now, your name, Dr. Podoloff, is Eastern European. What's the extraction of that name?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
My father's father was born in Kiev.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Ah, okay. Now were your parents immigrants or first generation?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
My father's side of the family were immigrants from the pogroms during the csar’s times. I think they came in 1906. And my mother's side was already here for a generation. They were of English and German extraction.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Okay. So tell me a bit about your education?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
I went to public school in New York City until high school. And then went to a private school called New Lincoln which was a progressive private school - no grades.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Why did your parents elect to send you there?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
You'd have to ask them. [Laughter
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
I mean that's an interesting choice. Yeah. I mean, what kind of people were your parents that they would have made a decision like that for their child?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
I think they were liberal - social liberals, fiscal conservatives I would describe them as. And I think there were things ab - They had a friend who had a son about my age and he was going to that school. Danny and I were pretty close so that's how I got there.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
I see. And so what grade were you when you started going to the New Lincoln School?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
I was in the first year of high school.
Recommended Citation
Podoloff, Donald A. PhD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 01: The First Person to Go to College" (2015). Interview Chapters. 729.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/729
Conditions Governing Access
Open
