“Second Careers” becoming Popular with Biology Alumni

01-27-2010

Dr. A. Wendell Musser, M.D. (BS 1952) completed his medical and postgraduate medical education at Indiana University in 1956 and residency training in 1961. He passed his board in both Anatomic and Clinical Pathology. His residency training was split between Internal Medicine and Pathology. Dr. Musser was married to Nancy Harris for twenty years before her death in July 2003 of cardiac and pulmonary problems. With the death of Nancy he had lost his best friend. The agony and pain of loss of her was almost more than he could bear. To find solace a friend suggested that he start taking some courses at the Duke University Learning in Retirement program. The excellence of the program soon attracted two rather large grants from the Osher Foundation and thereby the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke University was born (OLLI). Dr. Musser credits his involvement in OLLI for providing him encouragement to continue on with a productive lifestyle.

Thus, was the impetuous for Dr. Musser "second career". For the past five years he has been lecturing from his substantial book collections on Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt. The OLLI program gives him intellectual stimulation, an outlet for sharing his knowledge of history, and a secondary gain that cannot be measured. He often says with feeling, "a day away from OLLI is a day away from happiness". Dr. Musser says his life is full with OLLI and enjoying his marriage to Martina Cadiz (whom he married in September 2003). "Musser is the Founding Past President of the Churchill Society of North Carolina, a member of the Board of Directors of Friends of the Durham County Public Library, liaison to the Board of Trustees of the Durham County Library, and faculty in the Osher Life Long Institute at Duke University.