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Alumni Hall of Honor Members

Nelson Arnstein, the first Hyde alumnus to pursue a career in medicine, is a physician who serves as the Director of Nuclear Medicine at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles. Hailing from New York City, Nelson arrived at Hyde in the summer of 1967. During his four years at Hyde (1967-71), Nelson exhibited a level of courage in the classroom, on the diving board, on the cross-country course, and around campus that inspired all who attended Hyde during those early years. After Hyde, Nelson went on to Pomona College, graduating magna cum laude in Zoology. He continued with medical school at Mt. Sinai Hospital and has since received fellowships and teaching commissions at Georgetown, University of Southern California, University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins University. While Nelson’s contributions to medicine, by themselves, are worthy of Hyde’s highest honor, he also embodies Hyde’s qualities in his “leisure” activities. Some of these include:

• RUNNING: He has completed several marathons (Always in his Hyde cross-country singlet!) as well as an Ironman 70.3 triathlon;

• MARITIME HISTORIAN: (Go ahead, try to stump him on anything to do with the Titanic!);

• ASTRONOMY: In May of 1994, he came to campus to teach Hyde students about an annular solar eclipse, going so far as to outfit the entire community with safe viewing glasses for the occasion;

• PHOTOGRAPHY: As an example of his professional creativity, over a several year period, he photographed the entire Maine coast from Kittery to Calais, creating images that contributed to a single work stretching from one wall of the Hyde-Bath Field House all the way to the other. As one of his classmates said, “Nelson Arnstein personifies unique potential.”