Deceased December 6, 2023
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In Memory
Joshua Shere passed away on Dec. 6, 2023, after a 50-year battle with multiple sclerosis.
Jay received his M.D. from Northwestern. Our entire fifth-year medical school class—then known as interns—was unexplainably drafted shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy. It wasn’t until after reporting for active duty in July of 1964 that we learned why: The Gulf of Tonkin incident occurred after all military medicine battle stations were manned worldwide.
Jay was my roommate at Amherst. Although a conscientious student—rumored to have been selected from New Trier by Dean Wilson as a “late bloomer”—he made chemistry look easy. His wife, Vicki, told me that he delved into chemistry in the footsteps of his father, a chemist who built Diversey Corp. in Chicago. I talked with Jay about his service in Vietnam. It was terrible; he was the doctor at a South Vietnamese POW camp and set a lot of broken limbs—presumably inflicted on prisoners by guards. Jay said Dave Borden ’59 was able to get him 100 percent service connection for Agent Orange exposure causing his multiple sclerosis. Despite the support of his wife, Vicki, Jay languished in a VA nursing home for years until his death.
Jay deserves to be memorialized for his heroic service to this country, for which he sacrificed the most productive years of his career.
Joshua is survived by wife Vicky, ex-wife Jane, son Jon, daughter Carrie and grandson Lucca.
John Liebert ’59