Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Merv Weiner


Merv grew up on West Selden Street along with Dave Bosse, Butch Dennis, Gordy Morse, Paul Spiegel, and Eddie Green. He first met Herbie & Mark Goldberg who were visiting an aunt there and were playing catch on the street. He joined them in a baseball tag game and later became friends. Merv went to the Roger Wolcott grammar School and then entered Boston Latin in the 7th grade. He graduated Boston Latin in 1953 and played softball and basketball there. He went to UMASS and was roommates with Max Reinstein in his freshman year and was a member of Tau Epsilon Phi with Max , Charlie Itchkawitz, Skippy Ellman and later Gordy Morse. He graduated in 1957. He was interested in going to Medical School but did not get in. He then joined the Army Reserve under the Reserve Forces Act and served 6 months active duty at Fort Dix (Basic Army Administration School). He then landed a job with Raytheon in the Production Control Dept and after 6 months took a job as a Research Assistant at Tufts Medical School Dept of Biochemistry. Tufts offered him a Research Fellowship and he received a Masters Degree in Biochemistry in 1962.
He started his career as a scientist ( Radiobiochemist) at a small entreprenurial firm , New England Nuclear Corporation ,which later went public and was a Wall Street " darling"for many years . He was married in 1962 . He obtained an M.B.A. with Honors at B.U. during a special evening part-time program that was newly established after the Harvard Program.
After getting his M.B.A. he set out to gain management experience and left Boston in 1967 and joined Hoffmann-LaRoche, the Swiss based Pharmaceutical Company with U.S. Headquarters in N.J. to help establish a new non- pharmaceutical medical device business in the Princeton area. During this period he worked in marketing, gained experience in strategic planning and mergers and acquisitions(M & A) activities. Over the years his science and business background combination allowed him to develop a specialty niche in medical products and devices and he became a M&A /business development professional.
He spent a few years with Pfizer in NY City, did a fling in L.A. for 3 years as a Vice President of a small Clinical Lab ( 6 Months), consulted and was an adjunct Professor of Marketing at Cal State University Long Beach. He returned to the East Coast in 1980 to live in N.Y. City and worked for Bristol-Myers Squibb Company in Corporate Development. He retired as a Vice Pesident of Corporate Development- Health Care in 1995 after 16 years of service.
His first marriage ended in Divorce in 1978 and he was a bachelor for 20 years. He married in 1999 and his dashing wife, Dr Deborah Cleveland, is an Associate Professor of Oral Pathology at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark , N.J. She is known as "The Jewel of New Jersey Dental School’’. They live in West Orange, N.J. and have a home In Hollywood , FL.
Merv has 2 distinguished sons. Joshua is a prize winning poet/ writer and an Associate Professor in the English Department at the University of Maryland and lives in D.C. Michael is an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine /Geriatrics /Informatics at Indiana School of Medicine in Indianapolis.
He has 4 grandkids ages 7-13… (3 boys & 1 girl). Merv enjoys tennis, fishing, sailing, traveling, music, wine and lots of garlic.

Merv is 73 and is in pretty good health. He has Diabetes( type 2) and has a Coronary Stent and a Pacemaker. He keeps movin & groovin!

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