Alumni from ‘Greatest Generation’ visit archives

Two members of the College of Medicine Class of 1946 recently visited the UNMC Archives to share their med school memories, reminisce about the medical profession in Omaha during the second half of the 20th century, and look back on their own part in that history.

Omaha physicians John L. Barmore (age 93), anesthesiologist, and Byron Oberst (age 92), pediatrician, moved through Wittson Hall and the library with keen eyes on what they were seeing, and quick remarks on people and events; both of their memories quite sharp.

The scions of Omaha medical history visited with library faculty member John Schleicher and alumni director Roxanna Jokela, accompanied by Dr. Barmore’s daughter Alice, who drove them to campus from Lakeside Village Retirement Community where they both live. Friends since med school days, they have shared many experiences throughout their lives. Although born in different places (Dr. Barmore in Springview, Neb., and Dr. Oberst in Omaha), they nearly shared a birthday, being born one year and one day apart.

In this 1946 class photo, Dr. Barmore is on the far left, and Dr. Oberst is on the far right.

Their lives also paralleled in other ways. Upon graduation from med school in the first year following the end of World War II, most of the members of the class were commissioned as First Lieutenants in the Medical Corps of the U.S. Army. Drs. Barmore and Oberst were both eventually posted off U.S. occupied Japan, which lasted from 1945 to 1952. By the early 1950s, they returned to Omaha for medical practice, and by the mid-50s they both had become volunteer faculty members of their alma mater. They’ve each had long and successful careers in Omaha.

Dr. Oberst said that while unpacking his things in his apartment at Lakeside Village, there was a knock at the door. “When I answered it, gosh darn if it wasn’t John Barmore, who lives down the hall.”

With Alice Barmore’s help, the two are working on a project to identify ‘who is who’ in their med school class picture, in which the class is standing on the steps of the old front of University Hospital.

Dr. Oberst said, if his name sounds familiar to the “younger generation,” it is because his grandson is well-known indie rock musician and singer-songwriter Conor Oberst, best known for his work with the group Bright Eyes, who was named Best Songwriter of 2008 by Rolling Stone magazine.