Ralph Gordon discusses his career as a physician, professor, researcher, and administrator, much of it spent in the Department of Pediatrics and Human Development at Michigan State University. He talks about coming to teach at MSU in 1972, leaving to help start a medical school in Texas and later working in Saginaw, Flint, and Kalamazoo while maintaining a relationship with MSU. Gordon says that medical training is moving to a trade school model rather than being an academic endeavor and that MSU's mission to produce primary care physicians is in direct conflict with the creation of the new MSU research institute in Grand Rapids. He also talks about his interest in medical history and his activities in retirement. MSU Sociology Professor Emeritus Dr. David J. Kallen conducts the interview as part of the MSU Department of Pediatrics and Human Development Oral History Project.
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