Wise recipe for success

As I read Robert Kennedy’s BDN op-ed piece (BDN, Feb. 2) touting Maine’s biomedical research triangle, I was reminded of the words of my own Uncle Bob, a wise and wealthy man: “It’s amazing what can be accomplished when nobody worries about who gets the credit.”

Our promising research triangle (cornered in the Portland, Orono and Bar Harbor regions) is the amazing product of dozens of selfless people who did not care who got the credit. I remember, for example, late-night phone calls and e-mails with Jackson Lab Director Ken Paigan and UM Research Vice President Dan Dwyer in 1999 from the very hotel and at the very time when I was first meeting vice-president-to-be Kennedy. Those conversations literally saved the project from the oblivion planned for it by its opposition.

I also recall work done by Don McDowell, Vince Conti, E.J. Lovett and the late Tom Maciag at Maine Medical Center Research Institute in Scarborough. There is a long list of heroes who never asked for credit, and the names I provide here do not complete this list.

I trust that those who are justly taking so much pride in the Research Triangle project, as well as whoever will take over the UM reins from Interim President Kennedy, will continue to remember Uncle Bob’s wise recipe for success.

Peter S. Hoff

Bangor