Gorlin, Padre De La Patología Bucal

American Journal of M edical Genetics 46:317-334 (1993)

Living History-Biography: From O ral Pathology
t o C raniofacial Genetics
Robert J. Gorlin
U niversity of M innesota School of Dentistry, Minneapolis, Minnesota
ROBERT JAMES GORLIN
Early Life
I was born on 11J anuary 1923 in Hudson, N.Y., he
t
only child of James Alter Gorlin and Gladys Gretchen
Hallenbeck. Abandoned by mymother, my father placed
me in the care of my great aunt who raised me until I
was 1 1 years old when she began to suffer ill health and
had no more economic wherewithal to support me further. I t hen joined my father and my stepmother whom
he had recently married. My father was a small scale
businessman with little formal education. We moved
several times within a few years to small towns in NewJersey, partly the result of his poor business acumen and
partly due t o malencounters with the law. In 1937, we
moved t o Newark and settled in a two-bedroom apartment with grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and two
boarders. In spite of the crowded conditions, every niche
and recess being occupied by a bed, it was not, t o t he best
of my memory, an unhappy home.
I do not know whathopes or ambitions my father and
stepmother had for me. They respected education but
they believed that since they were so impecunious, college was out of t he picture. After I rejected the idea of
becoming a priest (my stepmother’s brother’s calling),
my father suggested that I take a General Business
Preparation curriculum in high school. It was after a
year of such training that I moved toNewark. A high
school General Science teacher recognized some bizarre
talent in me and requested that I should take a College
Preparation course. This, I did, after much discussion
with my parents, who remained skeptical concerning
future finances. The switch t o such a different curricuFig. 1. Recent photograph of Robert J . Gorlin with signature.
lum was somewhat painful but I seemed tofind science
courses enjoyable. Our finances were, in actuality, so
shaky, my father then working on the WPA, that I was college. I had read little outside of my required course
encouraged t o seek an after-school job. I found one in a work, but I scored well and managed to receive a scholardrug store where I started as a delivery boy but soon ship to Columbia College in New York City.
began t ocompound prescriptions. The neighborhood
That was a shock! There were clearly two classes of
was remarkable. It was 70% Jewish and definitely up- students-the
rich and the poor-the
dormitory
wardly mobile. Most of my friends were planning t o go to dwellers and the commuters-the preppies and the public schoolers. But everyone seemed to know everything.
They had read everything and I had readnothing. They
had had courses in European history and Greek and
Received for publication September 28, 1992.
Roman history and music and art and had read the great
Address correspondence t o Robert J. Gorlin, Regents’ Professor,
University of Minnesota School of D entistry, Malcolm Moos books and spoke languages like French and German and
H ealth Sciences Tower, 515 Delaware St. SE,Minneapolis, MN could read Latin and ancient Greek with ease. And they
were articulate and charming. It took me almost a year
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1993 W iley-Liss, Inc.

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Gorlin

of commuting two hours each way on bus, train, and
subway trying t o unravel the mystery of why they were
so smart and I was so illiterate. By husbanding what few
resources I had and cadging as many extra dollars as Icould by creating a “corsage agency” for fraternity
dances, and running a “personal stationery agency,”
and a “personal laundry service,” I managed t o float an
education (tuition was $4QQ/yr,
room was $5/week, and
Receiving my A.B. in three years with World War I1 i n
full flower, and knowing I would be drafted, I volunteered, was inducted, and was sent for basic training in
Texas and...