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Martin Weston Pipe WOLFERSTAN (G52-57)

1938 - 2007

A tribute from his daughters Nadya and Sarah:

Born 7th June 1938, Martin was the second of four children. Evacuated to Devon and then to the USA during the war, Martin returned to England aged 6 and boarded at Hordle House, Hampshire and Framlingham College, Suffolk. It was at the latter that he built his first transistor radio, enjoyed scrambling through the undergrowth as a cadet, did well at cross-country given his height (he was 6’4” at 14) and rather less well at cricket due to his short sightedness. Taking advantage of the fact that “a drippy junior housemaster was on duty” he allegedly blew up one of the infamously hard rock-cakes served to the boys during a dreary, post-war tea-time. He went on to read History at Trinity Hall, Cambridge (1957-60), spending considerable time in the university’s ADC theatre lighting box and, if all his stories are to be believed, getting involved in various undergraduate pranks.

After a brief spell teaching History at St Paul’s, London (during which time he shared digs with some of his Framlingham friends in a house they named ‘The Hovel’) and Science at the Dalton School, New York, Martin decided to retrain as a medic at Columbia University (1964-69). Whilst at medical school he married Frederica, the daughter of old family friends, with whom he shared a small, blue houseboat moored on the Harlem River – HMS Englebert – together with their floating menagerie; a boa constrictor (named George, after the Dean of his old medical faculty) and two cats. His first post was as House Physician at the Charity Hospital and Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana (1969-70). Tiring of the swamps, he moved north to the Canadian snow, where he worked for nine years, firstly as Orthopaedic Registrar and subsequently as A&E Attending Staff, at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Quebec. Throughout his medical career he was involved in teaching junior doctors and medical students. Whilst in Canada he taught at McGill University and Dawson College, organising one of the first specialist courses for paramedics in Canada and becoming Vice Principle in 1973. He also met his second wife, Editta, with whom he had two his daughters, Nadya, now a solicitor and Sarah, an archaeologist. In 1979, the family, which now included two very large St Bernard dogs, returned to the USA, this time to Hawaii where they remained until 1985. Martin taught again as Associate Professor of Surgery at the John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, at a time when the programme was receiving accreditation from the American Academy of Orthopeadic Surgeons. During his 7 years in Hawaii he worked as the Director of the Island’s Ambulance Service, setting up a walk-in Orthopaedic Practice in Oahu and training paramedics.

Upon returning to the UK, he worked as an Orthopaedic Registrar at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton (1985-89). A series of locum positions followed between 1990-2005 when his tall-frame, topped with white hair (which he referred to as ‘Polar Blonde’) became a familiar site at the Accident and Emergency of hospitals all over the country. After some 40 years he moved back to Cambridge with his third wife, Dorothy (who he affectionately renamed Blossom) and, although he officially retired in 2005, he enthusiastically supervised undergraduate medics at his former college where he was an active year rep. He was about to embark on a new project, teaching junior doctors at Addenbrookes teaching hospital when he passed away suddenly aged 68 on 1st September 2006 from heart related problems.

Martin was a collector of entertaining anecdotes, unknown facts, and imaginative nick-names. His house was filled with the chiming of a multitude of clocks and telephones from his travels through North America and Europe. He was obsessed with gadgets, especially his computers. He adored children and enjoyed spending his free time walking his two labradors, taking photos, e-mailing friends from around the world, watching classic films, cooking marinated steak on his BBQ and tinkering with his vintage car, an Austin A30. He is remembered by his many friends and former colleagues around the world as an eccentric gentleman with a wicked sense of humour and an extraordinary generosity of spirit.

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