Together almost 50 years

MARRIED SINCE | 1975, in Bond Chapel

Finding each other in the group: They first spoke at a wine and cheese reception following a Medicine on the Midway photo shoot for a story on the new entering class of 1974. Their class often socialized in groups, so they gradually got to know each other at post-anatomy class dinners at the Medici or Saturday morning anatomy movies, required for class. They brought along soft drinks and popcorn to make the movies more fun. “I remember thinking he was very funny,” Linda recalled. Bill’s take: “She was a cute blonde.”

The eye-opening camping trip: They can’t recall their official first date, but between Christmas and New Year’s Day in 1974 they joined a group of classmates on a camping trip to Florida. “We started dating after that,” Bill said. They got married just months later, after their first year of medical school, as did a few of their classmates.

Favorite Hyde Park hangouts: Woodlawn Tap (aka “Jimmy’s”), Medici on 57th, Edwardo’s Natural Pizza, Mellow Yellow and Tai Sam Yon, a Chinese restaurant on 63rd Street.

Low-key proposal: They agreed it was a good idea to marry well before the start of clinical training during their third year. Bill says his proposal “wasn’t any big dramatic thing” and he couldn’t afford a ring at the time. Linda remembers him saying, “I think we ought to get married. Let’s do it sooner rather than later.” They lived in inexpensive married student housing at 58th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue, where the Duchossois Center for Advanced Medicine (DCAM) now stands. “It was great. From our house to the door of the old Chicago Lying-in Hospital was a 60-second walk,” Bill said.

Science- and marriage-minded: Their class had 104 students, including 22 women at the time, the largest percentage of females in a Pritzker class. The Phillipses were one of seven couples from their class to marry. Of those couples, five are still married.

Dean Ceithaml intervenes: Linda used her married name through most of medical school but wanted her maiden name used for graduation. It was 1978, a big year for women to make a statement about their independence. “I didn’t care, but the dean’s office thought it was a pre-divorce move. They were freaking out,” Bill recalled, laughing. Two other married female students made the same change.

Dean of Students Joseph Ceithaml, SB’37, PhD’41, called Linda to ask her if everything was OK between her and Bill. “He thought all three of our marriages were falling apart,” she said.

Staying close: In the 1970s, Pritzker students did their rotations at Chicago Lying-in, Wyler Children’s Hospital, the old Billings Hospital or Michael Reese Hospital. The medical student lounge was nearby, and the library was on the second floor of Billings. “Everything was right there,” Bill said. That closeness helped create a special camaraderie among the class. “We always supported and cared about each other,” Linda said.

Where they work now: Linda and Bill are both full-time surgeons. Bill is Chief of Orthopedics at Shriners Children’s Texas. Linda is the Truman G. Blocker, Jr., MD, Distinguished Chair and Chief of Plastic Surgery in the Department of Surgery at UTMB Galveston. She made history as the first woman to chair the American Board of Plastic Surgery.