‘It transformed our lives’

How they met: As first-year medical students, they lived across the hall from each other in Burton-Judson Courts. They had all their classes together and became good friends. During their third year of medical school, they became a couple, and both did their internal medicine internships and residencies at the University of Chicago Medicine. When friendship became something more: On a cold night in mid-January 1983, they went to Facets Multimedia in Lincoln Park to see “Taxi zum Klo,” an iconic German film (with English subtitles) about a gay schoolteacher’s boring days and wild nights. The movie was shown on a hanging sheet, and they sat on two of the dozen or so folding chairs. Later that night, they confessed their feelings for each other.

Married student housing pioneers: Same-sex couples didn’t “officially” live in married student housing in the 1980s, but they applied separately and somehow got a two-bedroom apartment together at the Fairfax, at 51st Street and Dorchester Avenue. Robertson remembers the woman who oversaw married housing raised an eyebrow at their rooming situation, but let it slide. “It was lovely housing, actually. Sometimes when we go back to Hyde Park, we drive by,” he said. Their post-anatomy dissection tradition: Reeking of formaldehyde after their anatomy dissection lab, Robertson and Slapak instituted a martini hour at their dorm after their three-timesa-week class. “Even though you wore gloves, it was hard to get the smell off your hands. The martinis helped us put out of mind what we’d just done for the last four hours,” Slapak said.

Finding love when you least expect it: Both say the University of Chicago changed their lives in the best possible ways. “It transformed our lives. I was a chemistry major from Ohio State and I wanted to be a doctor,” Slapak said.

“Seven years later, between medical school and residency, I not only walked out with my lifetime partner, but I was completely transformed as a person.”

Where they work now: Following a long career at Eli Lilly and Company, where he helped develop and launch two cancer drugs, Slapak now works as a consultant and is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at Indiana University School of Medicine. Robertson is a Professor of Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine and Director of the Lymphoma Program.