Who was Tim Stanley?


    Simply stated, Tim Stanley was a Ph.D. candidate here at the Univesity of Michigan.   To most of you, he was just one of many students trying to get a degree and eventually a job.  From my perspective, Tim was my roommate and a person I considered a friend.

    As I was finishing up my dissertation in Los Angeles, I had already made a committment to come to U of M as a postdoc.  The thought of having to make a special trip out to Ann Arbor just to find a place to live in the middle of my writing was not looking too appealing.  However, aside from the people I had met when I came out for my interview, I knew very few people in Ann Arbor.  Through some great fortune, I was hooked up with Tim and he agreed to take me on as a roomie without even meeting me.  It was a great deal for me, since it saved me a special trip to look for a place to live.  Tim and I got along and he got me oriented and introduced me to Ann Arbor.  The deal was that Tim would live with me until he finished writing his dissertation and graduated, in June '96.  I moved out here to Ann Arbor the last week of August '95.

    Late in the fall and early winter of '95, Tim started to complain to me of some dizziness when getting up from his desk at work.  Apparently some of these symptoms existed prior to my arrival, but had gotten worse.  He later began to complain of sporadic double vision.  I strongly suggested that he see a doctor, which he finally did.  According to Tim, his primary care physician thought he might be suffering from an ear infection.  However, because he did not exhibit any outward signs of an ear infection, his physician decided to run some tests.  Now, I have a Ph.D. in physiology and by no means am I a physician.  However, double vision is not a classic symptom of an ear infection and is usually a strong warning sign of more serious problems such as neural involvement.  But, who am I to say.  I strongly suggested to Tim that he get a second opinion.   Anyway, this dragged on through the winter.

    When I returned to Ann Arbor following the Christmas holidays, Tim's condition had deteriorated significantly.  He was basically bed-ridden and was having a hard time supporting his own weight.  His physician finally decided to do an MRI, having not found any further evidence for an ear infection.  When Tim went in for the MRI, the physician who prepped him immediately recognized that something was seriously wrong, called the neurologist on call, and had him admitted to the hospital.  Tim's MRI revealed several lesions in the brain stem area.  Following extensive work-ups and some more bungling (in my opinion) by the team of neurologists treating him, he was finally diagnosed as having a primary t-cell lymphoma of the CNS.  He was started on intrathecal chemotherapy on a semi-outpatient basis, while Tim's parents and his fiancee, Mary-Beth, tried to make those difficult decisions about Tim's future treatments.  For a variety of reasons which I will not go into, it was decided that Tim and Mary-Beth would get married and that Tim would be transferred to Boston for his furture treatments.   Tim and Mary-Beth were married in early March in a small ceremony in our condo and they left for Boston in early March.   Tim passed away early on the morning of May 30, 1996.

    While Tim's passing saddened me deeply, I am more upset that I will never able to repay his kindness to me when I first came here to Ann Arbor.  It's never easy taking in a roommate without meeting him/her.   For all he knew, I could've been a homicidal maniac.  There is a phrase in Japanese "Go-on o kaesu" which very roughly translates to "to return a personal debt".  Unfortunately, I won't be able to return this one.

    The photographs in this tribute were taken by me at Tim and Mary-Beth's wedding.  I played the role of photographer as my wedding gift to them.  These are just 3 selected shots of a happier moment in both Tim and Mary-Beth's lives.



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