Elmira Star-Gazette, NY
Aug 26 2007
A pathologist full of life
Retired Elmira physician, 90, spends time distance running and taking
scientific expeditions.
August 26, 2007
Not many people can say they’ve shared space with mountain gorillas.
But Goryun Nigogosyan can say not only that, but also that he has
survived tuberculosis, has felt the flippers of leatherback turtles
and has performed thousands of autopsies.
Nigogosyan, 90, has led an exciting and multifaceted life. And he has
no plans to slow down anytime soon. This past July, he traveled to
Kentucky for the 2007 Summer National Senior Games, where he won the
gold medal for the 10K race in the 90- to 94-year-old age category.
"What use is life if you don’t enjoy living it?" Nigogosyan says,
matter-of-factly.
Nigogosyan of Elmira, is a retired pathologist and former chief of
the department at St. Joseph’s Hospital. He started running in 1963
and hasn’t stopped; about three times a week he runs five miles a
day. Every year he competes in the Huntsman World Senior Games in
Utah, among other national races. He has taken first place in 10K
races at the New York State Senior Olympics several times.
Nigogosyan and his wife enjoy traveling, but in his retirement,
Nigogosyan has taken several adventurous trips without her. He’s been
on a bushwhacking expedition to track wolves in Isle Royale,
Michigan; he’s watched wolves in Yellowstone National Park; and he’s
traveled to Antarctica on a converted Russian weather ship.
Nigogosyan also has seen the chimpanzees in Jane Goodall’s research
post in Tanzania and has observed mountain gorillas at Dian Fossey’s
Karisoke Research Center in Rwanda.
Nigogosyan’s wife, Jeannine, accompanied her husband on one less
strenuous scientific expedition: to St. Croix to study the eggs of
leatherback turtles. About 10 people were on the two-week trip, in
which their job was to monitor the turtles’ eggs. They walked up and
down the nesting area on the beach each night from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.,
and when the turtles began laying their eggs, everyone turned off
their flashlights and froze, so as not to scare them. However, they
were able to touch the turtles once the laying process had begun.
Then the participants measured the eggs and moved the nests to higher
ground if they were too close to the water.
Frank Gudas of Elmira, a longtime friend and colleague, accompanied
Nigogosyan on several trips.
"I’ve known Goryun since 1972, but it wasn’t until 1986 that I
realized his interest in natural history. We were at a dinner party
when he mentioned something about wolves … (and this led to) our
Earthwatch expedition in 1988 to Isle Royale," Gudas says.
The scientific expedition was designed to learn about the wolves on
the uninhabited island, except nobody on the trip ever saw them.
Instead, they tracked them by finding the remnants of fecal material
and animals killed by the wolves, carrying their tents, food and
water on their backs the whole time.
"We hiked together for 12 hours a day for six days in the wilderness,
on absolutely no paths," Gudas says. When asked what they discussed
for all that time, Gudas says: "We didn’t talk politics, and we
didn’t talk medicine. We didn’t talk a whole lot!"
Early days in Turkey
Nigogosyan was born in Istanbul, Turkey, of Armenian descent. His
parents were teachers, and he remembers that money was always tight,
since teachers were poorly paid. His sister grew up to become a
professional singer, and his brother became a violin maker in Paris.
For Nigogosyan, however, there was never a doubt in his mind that he
would go into medicine.
"I wanted to be (Louis) Pasteur," he says. Nigogosyan’s father gave
him biographies to read, and after reading about Pasteur’s life
story, he says his mind was made up. He also says his career options
were limited.
"Being an Armenian in Turkey was difficult … there was such hatred
between the Turks and the Armenians … and the prejudice was
terrible," Nigogosyan says.
He says that many colleges in Turkey would not accept students with
Armenian heritage.
"There was no law school that took Armenians. It was just that way.
And there was only one medical school that accepted Armenians."
That’s why Nigogosyan graduated from Istanbul Medical College — with
a great desire to leave his native country.
Life in Switzerland
After spending three years in the Turkish army (from 1942 to 1945),
Nigogosyan ended up in Switzerland, working as an attending physician
at a world-renowned tuberculosis sanatorium in Davos. It was here, at
Wald Sanatorium, where he met his future wife, Jeannine. She was a
nurse from Belgium, and Nigogosyan says he vividly remembers the
moment he met her.
"It was Jan. 23, 1948, and she was wearing this knit hat with a
yellow pompom." He says he was instantly smitten, though the same
cannot be said for Jeannine.
"I thought he was a pest!" she says. "He was always behind
someplace," she adds, with a laugh. But it wasn’t long before her
feelings changed; they were married in Davos in 1952.
Numerous tuberculosis sanatoriums were in operation at the time, but
Wald Sanatorium was perhaps the most prestigious. Only the wealthy
could afford to stay there, 5,000 feet up a mountain, in the middle
of the woods, and people traveled internationally for treatment. (One
of Nigogosyan’s patients was the daughter of the king of Nepal.)
Goryun and Jeannine Nigogosyan contracted tuberculosis while working
in Davos, and both became patients for a while.
Physicians at the sanatorium prescribed programs for patients,
depending on their specific condition, fever and X-ray results,
explains Nigogosyan. People had to adhere to certain diets and
exercise regimens. And all patients had their own chaise lounge on
outdoor verandahs, on which they had to rest for certain periods of
time in the morning and afternoon, with the "healing" air of the Alps
to assist them.
"This was the way tuberculosis was treated then," he says.
Coming to Elmira
The Nigogosyans wanted to eventually come to the United States, but
there was a problem with Goryun’s immigration status.
"Every country had a quota … and only 250 people a year from Turkey
could come to the U.S. This meant I would have to wait 25 years to
come here," Nigogosyan says.
They decided to immigrate on Jeannine’s passport. As a native
Belgian, she could immigrate from her home country with her husband,
but she had to live there for a year prior to leaving. That’s
precisely what the couple did, and in 1954, they decided to travel to
the U.S. by boat so that they could see the Statue of Liberty.
Both describe their reasons for the excitement and awe they felt when
seeing the statue in the harbor:
"We got up at 5:30 (a.m.) to see the lady. She was so impressive; I
couldn’t believe it. And I knew I had finally gotten away from
Turkey," Goryun says.
"For me, I loved my country, so it was different. I was excited
because I was coming here with him!" says Jeannine.
They arrived in New York City and traveled to Baltimore, fully
expecting Nigogosyan to begin his internship at The Johns Hopkins
University. But their passage had taken so long that the hospital had
filled the position that had been promised to him. After an army
friend of Nigogosyan’s in New York City took them in, he looked at
the list of hospitals offering internships and decided to take a bus
to visit St. Joseph’s Hospital. It turned out that Nigogosyan would
make $360 a month there, as opposed to $20 a month at Johns Hopkins.
He began his internship at St. Joseph’s in December 1954. After
undergoing further training at Roswell Park Memorial Hospital in
Buffalo and Harper Hospital in Detroit, he returned to Elmira.
Nigogosyan remained at St. Joseph’s until he retired in 1988.
Jeannine was a nurse at St. Joseph’s for a couple of years, until her
son was born. Then she stayed home to raise him and his sister, who
was born about two years later.
"And the rest is history!" he says.
Dr. James Terzian, a pathologist with Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton,
worked with Nigogosyan at St. Joseph’s from 1982 to 1990. Terzian
arrived at the hospital as his assistant and after his retirement
took over the chief pathologist’s job.
"’Nig’ is a unique individual, very principled, with the proper
amount of curiosity about disease mechanisms and processes. … He
treated every autopsy victim as if it was his own patient," Terzian
says.
"He taught me as much during four years of residency as I had learned
in eight years of school. He’s colored everything I do in my practice
today; I was lucky to have crossed paths with him," he says.