COLLEGIUM DIGITAL NEWSLETTER

            December 2009

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2010 Spring Meeting

The 2010 Spring meeting will be held at the Salt Palace Convention Center in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City on April 1-2, 2010.  A full schedule will be published soon (Fireside speaker, presenters, etc.).  We have scheduled the meeting for downtown to allow more hotel options, provide closer access to church sites and other activities.  Discounts are available for early registration.  Register at www.collegiumaesculapium.org/conferences.htm

Member Full event 

$200 to Jan. 15; $225 Jan 16-Mar 15; $250 after Mar 16 

(Includes all events, meals, fireside and CME classes and credits)

Full event Spouse $100

(Includes all events, meals, fireside and CME classes and credits)

Fireside Guest $60 (Dinner and Thursday Fireside)  

 

Non Member Full event  

$300 to Jan. 15; $325 Jan 16-Mar 15; $350 after Mar 16 

(Includes all events, meals, fireside and CME classes and credits)

Non Member Full event Spouse $100

(Includes all events, meals, fireside and CME classes and credits)

Guest of non member $75 (Dinner and Thursday Fireside)  

Israel 2010

The spring tour to Israel is getting close.  In order to complete the necessary paperwork and gather all of the information, please register soon.  It is scheduled for April 24-May 5, 2010 and we are accepting travel deposits.  The members tour cost for the trip is $2,499/person plus airfare.  Registration is now open to non-Collegium members (friends at a cost of $2,750/person plus airfare). The deposit is $750/person.  Our hosts are Kimball Taylor, MD (Founder and President of the Children of Israel Foundation) and Ed Heyes, MD (former medical director of the BYU Jerusalem Center).  Please be aware that the tour is limited to 80 people and we already have almost 70 people registered. For more information go to our website at collegiumaesculapium.org/conferences.htm or boomerangtours.com

Our next edition will include the “Specialty Pearls” section.  If you have a Pearl of information about your specialty or medicine in general, please send it to newsletter@collegiumaesculapium.org and we will include it in an upcoming newsletter. 

Pres. William W. Parmley has been a general authority since 2003. Prior to becoming a general authority, Pres. Parmley had served as the chief of cardiology at the University of California, San Francisco and did studies primarily relating to cardiological pharmacology.  He was born in Salt Lake City and studied at Harvard and John Hopkins.

He says, "It was wonderful growing up in the home of my parents," Pres Parmley said. "I don't remember them raising their voices. They had a wonderful marriage, and we were good kids. We didn't know how to get into trouble. We were always busy with work or studies. They expected us to succeed."

Pres. Parmley earned a degree in Physics at Harvard University and then an MD from Johns Hopkins University.  Cardiology was significantly impacted by his research and study of heart muscles. 

In addition to the medical field, he has served the church throughout his life.  As a young man he served a mission in the Northwestern States.  He has also served as a Bishop, Stake President, Regional representative, Area Authority Seventy, and as a General Authority (2^nd Quorum).  He and his wife Shanna spent the last five years in the Africa Southeast Area in the Area Presidency.  They were released from that calling in Oct. General Conference and were called on November 1 to serve as President and Matron of the Sacramento Temple. 

Pres. Parmley looks back on a life of rich experiences, where the heat of at least three refining experiences prepared him to serve .The first experience was growing up in the home of his mother, LaVern W. Parmley, who served 23 years as Primary general president, and his father, Thomas J. Parmley, who was a revered and decorated professor of physics at the University of Utah for more than six decades.

Pres. Parmley remembers returning home on different occasions as an undergraduate student at Harvard College majoring in physics. His father would begin grilling him about what he had learned. "He'd ask a question, and I'd explain. He'd ask another, and I'd answer that. He continued until he probed in areas I didn't know. Then he'd shake his head, wondering if Ivy League schools knew how to teach physics," Pres. Parmley said.

Despite the need to balance time between work and study, the young William Parmley found time to play basketball with the many boys on Douglas Street in Salt Lake City, Utah, where he lived.  With a hoop hung on every garage in the neighborhood, he spent a lot of time playing sports.

His parents' encouragement and expectation to do well prepared Pres. Parmley for his second challenge: his first year at Harvard College.

"It was really hard," he said, "the hardest year of my life in terms of study. I was going against students from prep schools who were clearly a year or two ahead. It was a rocky beginning. Many flunked out that first year, including my roommate who was president of his high school in Dallas, Texas, and who was voted most likely to succeed. I felt I could catch my classmates if I worked hard enough. I really worked hard that first year."

Four years later, he graduated summa cum laude.

A third defining moment of Pres. Parmley's faith came as a junior at Harvard. While other students spent the Sabbath studying, Pres. Parmley attended Church meetings with fellow students and Church members such as Steven Covey businessman; Richard Bushman, professor; Truman Madsen, professor; Loren C. Dunn, who served as a General Authority from 1968-2000; and L. Tom Perry, now of the Quorum of the Twelve.

"Students at Harvard are very bright," Pres. Parmley said, "and the pressure and the competition to do well is incredible." But while his roommates spent Sundays studying, Pres. Parmley attended to Church duties.

One Sunday afternoon, prior to the current block schedule of meetings, Steven Covey organized a group of members to visit Boston Commons.

"I noticed he was carrying a folding chair when we got out of the car," Pres. Parmley said. "I couldn't figure what it was for. I watched as he walked into the middle of the largest crowd of people. They were listening to some speaker off to the side. He got up on the chair and began singing, 'High on a Mountain Top.'

"Then Steve began to speak. He was a charismatic, persuasive speaker and people turned around and started listening. The setting was much like his mission in England when he preached in Hyde Park. 

"After speaking for a few minutes, Steve said, 'Now, William Parmley will tell us about the Book of Mormon.' Without any warning and no time to gather my thoughts, I got up to speak."

Many Sunday afternoons were spent preaching from a folding chair. There were hecklers in the crowd, but others responded to their invitation to attend sacrament meeting. In time, three were baptized.

"I remember the spiritual feeling of those Sundays. The Spirit lingered through the week, usually until an organic chemistry lab mid-week," Pres. Parmley mused.

After graduation, Pres. Parmley served a mission in the Northwestern States. He returned to study medicine at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, which included a year of research at the University of Utah. During this time, he dated Shanna Lee who was studying at BYU. They were married after her graduation in August 1961.

For nearly 30 years, Pres. Parmley served as chief of cardiology at the University Of California San Francisco School Of Medicine where he lectured internationally and served as editor and chief of the Journal of American College of Cardiology, the most widely read cardiology journal in the world.  "I've thoroughly enjoyed these two pathways of Church and profession through life," he said.

In 2002 He and his wife, Shanna, decided to serve a mission together and he retired from the University. Pres. Parmley prepared for a mission—and instead was called to serve as a member of the Second Quorum of the Seventy—the true impact of his lifelong testimony became very evident.

He has served on many boards and advisory committees and has published more than 700 abstracts and articles, four books and contributed on many other chapters and publications.  During his career, he was involved in several studies involving heart muscle issues. He wrote the 1996 text Cardiology. He served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. He also co-authored with Glantz the article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, "Even a Little Second-hand Smoke is dangerous.”   (Information gathered from a discussion with Pres. Parmley, wikipedia.com and www.gapages.com)

Dr. Matern (Salt Lake UT)

Dr. Mathews (Provo UT)  

Dr. Woolf  (Mesa AZ)

Dr. Cannon (Burley ID)

Dr. Ferrin (Roy UT)

Dr. Gonzales (Ogden UT)

Dr. Hiatt (Tyler TX)

Sis. Sykes (Cardston CAN)

Sis. Byington  (Portsmouth DOMINICA)

Sis. Coleman (Portsmouth DOMINICA)

Bro. Dettinger (Portsmouth DOMINICA)

Bro. Moody   (Portsmouth DOMINICA)

For Immediate Release December 7, 2009

Contact:   Shad West, Information Specialist- Division of Housing & Community Development

(801) 538-8718 office  (801) 505-2662 cell

Lt. Governor Greg Bell of Utah Announces Launch of First Statewide Volunteer Website

SALT LAKE CITY- Utah’s Lt. Governor Greg Bell and the Utah Commission on Volunteers have partnered with the Utah Volunteer Center Association to launch a new volunteer opportunities database found at www.volunteers.utah.gov.  On December 8 at 11 a.m. a press conference will be held on the east drive of the State Capitol and Lt. Gov. Greg Bell will make the announcement official.

The ongoing economic crises has caused many non-profit organizations in Utah to slash budgets, cut programs and downsize staff, which in turn effects our most needy citizens. Many of these organizations are in dire need of volunteers to help where possible. The help received will aid in keeping these programs running www.volunteers.utah.govis the first state-wide volunteer website that will bridge the gap between Utahns who want to volunteer and the non-profit community organizations that need them. This centralized database is an invaluable resource where Utahns can both post and find volunteer opportunities all in one spot 

“Volunteerism is the lifeblood of our state and provides significant economic and social value for our citizens and communities,” said Lt. Governor Greg Bell. “As the #1 volunteering state in the nation for four years running, we all know the value of volunteering. Its part of our culture, who we are, and one of the reasons we as a state are better able to weather the current economic storm.”

As a kickoff to promote the new website database, numerous UTA bus banners will display various eye-catching messages encouraging volunteerism.

“For those who want to help, there are thousands of volunteer opportunities currently listed on the site representing over seven-hundred organizations. These opportunities reach communities all over the state,” said Shar Lewis, Utah Commission on Volunteers executive director. “I encourage you to use this website to find opportunities to serve that utilize your skills and make a meaningful difference in the lives of others.”

Visuals at the press conference will include a UTA bus with installed banner ads along with a DVD handout of additional graphics and promotions and contact information for regional Volunteer Center Association offices.

The mission of the Utah Commission on Volunteers, an office of the Lieutenant Governor, is to improve communities through service and volunteering. For more information on the Commission on Volunteers, and various volunteering opportunities across the state, log onto www.volunteers.utah.gov.