Born at what used to be Good Shepherd Hospital on Marshall Street, and then working at that same hospital in medical school at Syracuse University, Bruce Chamberlain can’t get enough of Syracuse. He comes from a long line of Syracuse University graduates, including his mother, father, aunt, brother, and sister. Majoring in a pre-med and medicine combination course, Chamberlain was a part of the first class to graduate early, which finished in December 1943. One would assume after so many years here, he would be tired of the Syracuse winters, but that is not the case. 

“I like the snow. It’s in the blood; you can’t always do away with it,” he said. But he believes that the winters are much better now saying, “They used to not have plows! It was a mess.” Although he spent time in California, and even had a home in Florida, he always found himself back in upstate New York.

Three days after graduation, he married his Syracuse University girlfriend, and then opened his own general surgery practice in Syracuse with a friend. Chamberlain immersed himself in the medical field, becoming the president of the County Medical Society. He even considered going into administrative medicine, but decided, “As far as medicine is concerned, I have been committed to surgery.”

In May 2004 Chamberlain moved into the Nottingham. “You can be as active as you want to be,” he said. Although he does not get into a lot of different activities, he has been working on his memoirs for the writing group directed by Eileen Schell whom he credits for urging him to write. The group has helped him with his vocabulary problems. “I skipped that stuff in high school, couldn’t stand it!” he said. Besides working on his memoirs, he has been working to keep his apartment much like a tropical oasis. His hibiscus plant, or as he affectionately refers to it, his baby, blooms in front of his window along with a palm tree and other plants from Florida. Although he no longer can do activities like woodworking and wine making like he used to, the Nottingham has helped him stay busy. “Time flies by and it’s interesting, it oughta drag!”

Profile by Caitlin Heikkila.