A life should have PURPOSE and JOY. I married the right girl (as students we met in a laundromat), and we raised two daughters together (the older girl was born with severe congenital heart disease), so my family has provided much purpose as well as joy. I’m a physician and scientist. I love reading, movies, chess, and poker (luckily with substantial winnings). I hope you’ll enjoy one of the five books I’ve written. Seeking Hidden Treasures: A Collection of Curious Tales and Essays has sold well in Europe and US, and a link to a brief TV interview about the book is here: https://youtu.be/BGn4HEv4BsM Through the years I have been a regular blood donor, and that is a valuable service that nearly every reasonably healthy person can do. Think about it!! We all should volunteer more when we can, and I’m a regular volunteer at my parish and at Yale Hospital.
About James A. Magner, MD
Q: Please tell us a little bit about your family.
My wife, Glenda Pritchett, teaches English Literature at Quinnipiac. Our older daughter, Erin, survived years as an infant and toddler with a feeding tube as well as two major heart surgeries. She recovered well, graduated from Amity HS, completed training in diagnostic imaging, got married, and works in a CT hospital. Carly went to USC in California and is a clinical psychologist; she married, lives out West and gave us two grandchildren.
Q: Please tell us about your current, past, or future career. What do you love most about what you do?
I’m retired, aged 72. I studied biology and chemistry at U of Illinois, Urbana, then graduated from the Pritzker School of Medicine at U of Chicago. After more training in Texas and the National Institutes of Health, I had long careers in academic medicine and the pharmaceutical industry. I love science and working with smart and engaging people.
Q: What advice would you give to people?
Think carefully about the big questions in life and about how you should spend your limited time on this planet. Read good books. Love and be loved. Be courageous but sensible (avoid motorcycles!). Do new and interesting things. Follow Teddy Roosevelt’s dictum: “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows nether victory nor defeat.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?
Hopefully I will still be alive and living in CT. I hope to keep telling people about my two favorite books: The Immense Journey by Loren Eiseley; The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener by Martin Gardner.
James A. Magner, MD & Our Community
Q: What are a couple of your favorite restaurants in our community?
Stonebridge Restaurant in Milford is excellent. For more routine evenings, Olive Garden and On the Border in Orange are convenient and reliably good.
Q: How long have you lived or worked in our community?
From 1997 to the present.
Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in our community?
Rev. William John Killeen was an elderly Catholic priest, a former pastor at Holy Infant in Orange. He was well educated and extremely intelligent. He was fairly active until his death in 2021 at age 88.
Q: What current or former local business makes you the most nostalgic about our community?
I have a close connection with Yale Hospital.
Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about our community?
Orange is safe and clean with good schools.
Q: If you could choose anyone that is alive today and not a relative; with whom would you love to have lunch? Why? And where locally would y’all meet for this lunch?
Dr. Arthur Schneider was my boss in Chicago’s Michael Reese Hospital for nine years. Our busy lives and the distance have separated us, but I’d be happy to catch up with him again for lunch at Stonebridge Restaurant.
For Fun
Q: What is one of your favorite movies? TV shows?
The Imitation Game; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Groundhog Day
Q: (Even for friends or family), what is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?
In the 1990s Brookhaven National Laboratory sent me twice to atolls in the Marshall Islands to study the effects of nuclear fallout on the residents after their exposure in 1954 to the hydrogen bomb incident at Bikini. Recall that I’m an endocrinologist with special expertise in thyroid cancer.
Q: What would you rate a 10 out of 10?
Mint chocolate chip ice cream.
Q: Who inspires you to be better?
Of course, my spouse. In addition, I read biographies of famous scientists and creative people. I think that The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin should be mandatory reading for every person on Earth.
Q: Finally, what 3 words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word HOME?
Love, safety, comfort.