Way back when, Mike went to college at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He met Marty Maron on the swim team during freshman year, and they ended up as roommates for two years after that.
As often happens, Mike and Marty didn’t have a lot of contact after graduation. The lack of Mike’s inspiration didn’t seem to hold Marty back, as he graduated from medical school, became a cardiologist, and is now a professor at Tufts University School of Medicine where he leads the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Center. Not too bad considering he didn’t have the benefit of Mike’s guidance and support for the last 25 years.
Marty’s family has long had a vacation house on Chappaquiddick Island, just to the east of Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard’s eastern edge. Luckily enough, Marty was there together with his family at the same time that Madrone was – we had a great time reconnecting, meeting his family, and catching up on some of the old days.
Although some time has passed, Marty remains more or less the same – warm, funny, self-deprecating, welcoming, and interested in the world around him. But he’s even better now because he’s surrounded by his family, his wife Alex and kids Willow and Bodhi.
We’ll try to make it a shorter gap than 25 years next time…
