4.
When Jay Freireich was nine years old,
he contracted tonsillitis. He was very
sick. The local physician—Dr.
Rosenbloom—came to his family’s
apartment to remove his inflamed
tonsils. “I never saw a man in those
years,” Freireich said. “Everyone I
knew was a woman. If you saw a man,
he was dirty and in overalls. But
Rosenbloom—he had a suit and tie and
he was dignified and kind. So from the
age of ten I used to dream about
becoming a famous doctor. I never
thought of any other career.”
In high school, his physics teacher