Necrology
Harold “Bud” Edward Coleman '50
Jul. 4, 1929-May. 26, 2023
Harold “Bud” Edward Coleman ’50, P’84 died at his home in Palo Alto, Calif., on May 26, 2023. Born in Utica on July 4, 1929, he came to Hamilton from the Utica Free Academy. On the Hill, he joined Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and majored in chemistry and history. In his second year, he joined the campus radio station, WHC, and in his final year he was in the Biology Club. He also was awarded first place in the McKinney Prize oration competition as a sophomore and graduated with honors in chemistry.
Early on, Bud intended to pursue a medical career. He first contemplated becoming an oral surgeon but would in fact specialize in anesthesiology. From Hamilton, he went to the University of Rochester’s School of Medicine where his distinguished academic achievement led to his induction into Alpha Omega Alpha, the medical honorary society. After earning his medical degree in 1954, he was inducted into the U.S. Army’s Medical Corps in 1955 with the rank of lieutenant. That same year on June 26, he married Roxanne Kantor, herself a Utica native and an alumna of Syracuse University, in Rome, N.Y. Two weeks after they were married, he began a training course at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio. Bud and Roxanne raised two daughters and two sons.
Honorably discharged in 1957 with the rank of captain, Bud returned to Rochester for training in his future specialty: anesthesiology. In 1960, he and Roxanne moved to Palo Alto where he joined the anesthesia faculty at the Palo Alto-Stanford Hospital. In 1963, nearby El Camino Hospital was completed in Mountain View, Calif., and Bud and four of his colleagues established its anesthesiology department. By 2000, it had grown to include 18 specialists. Before retiring in 1991, he established the practice of 24-hour anesthesiology care in the maternity unit making use of the comparatively new application of epidural anesthesia. He also was among the founders of the El Camino Insurance Exchange, a medical malpractice insurance company, and was for a period of time the vice chairman of its board of directors. This initiative was prompted by what was at the time a crisis in California in the malpractice insurance industry.
In retirement, he and Roxanne divided their time between their home in Palo Alto and one in Woodgate, N.Y., in the Adirondacks, where they resided for six months every year. Bud was a golfer and for more than 50 years was a member of the Stanford Golf Club. He also sailed and windsurfed well into his 70s.
For many years, Bud played bridge. He took up this card game at the College, as he recounted in an article for the Hamilton Alumni Review, in a story that celebrated Dr. Paul Greengard ’48 winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001. Bud lived next door to Dr. Greengard with his then-roommate Peter Falk, whose tenure at Hamilton was brief, but whose starring role as the rumpled detective in the television series Columbo (including reruns) was considerably longer. Greengard, his roommate, and Falk all played bridge, and they needed a fourth. Greengard taught Bud the game that became his hobby.
He was a consistent donor to the College throughout his career and is a member of the Joel Bristol Associates to honor a bequest from his estate. He also was on the Alumni Admissions Committee for a time.
Reflecting on his time on the Hill, Bud observed in his 50th reunion yearbook: “At Hamilton, I learned to discriminate not in its pejorative sense, but in the positive aspects of the word allowing me throughout the years to appreciate the wheat and avoid the chaff.” Beyond recalling with amusement the morning spectacle of 15 members of his fraternity stuffing themselves into a brother’s car to ride up the Hill, Bud also recalled “leaving Sunday night Chapel after a sermon by Norman Thomas, my head swimming with ideas.”
Harold E. Coleman is survived by his wife and four children, including David J. Coleman ’84, seven grandchildren, one great-grandchild, and his nephew, Charles T. Coleman ’73.
