Robert Rosenfeld, MA’73, MD’94, received his master’s degree from the Kennedy Center at Peabody, now the Vanderbilt Peabody College, in 1973. Twenty-one years later, he received his medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. According to Rosenfeld, what happened in between is “a little convoluted.”
Rosenfeld first took a job as a special education teacher in the Jefferson County Public School system in Louisville, Kentucky, and lived with a friend he’d met at Camp Horseshoe in northern Wisconsin.
Two years later, Rosenfeld took a cross-country camping trip and landed in Palo Alto, California, where he lived with another Camp Horseshoe buddy. He got a job at a private school, then transferred to the Palo Alto public school system. There, his supervisor often mentioned another teacher he should meet.
“At an in-service, I saw her walk in the room,” Rosenfeld said. “And that was my wife.”
He and Rebecca married, vacationed in Northern California and explored the coastal community of Mendocino. They quit their teaching jobs, bought a home and a kite and toy store there, and had a son, Bradley.
The Rosenfelds’ store was across from the volunteer fire department. Back then, the only way firefighters knew to rush to the firehouse was when a whistle was blown.
“The fire chief came into my store and said, ‘You’ve got to join the fire department,’” Rosenfeld said. “I thought, he must think I’m really special. But then he said, ‘Because you’re across the street and can blow the whistle first.’”
Rosenfeld joined the fire department, and after being exposed to HIV during a rescue, he helped develop an EMT program. He took inorganic chemistry at a community college and loved it. They moved to Nashville, where Rosenfeld spent two years taking the science classes he needed to apply to VUSM. He was 38 years old.
Rebecca Rosenfeld received a full scholarship from Vanderbilt to pursue her second master’s degree. She went on to work at Westminster School, now Currey Ingram Academy, and later became the head of the middle school.
Rosenfeld planned to be an emergency room physician. Then one day, while rotating through specialties, he was offered a chance to deliver a baby.
“I loved it,” he said. “It was so cool. That’s when I changed my mind.”
After graduating and practicing in Nashville, Rosenfeld received a letter from the fellow camper and friend he’d lived with in Louisville decades before. He’d become a physician in Mount Vernon, Washington, and his practice needed an OB-GYN. The Rosenfelds moved back across the country in 2005, where he practiced until retirement in 2015.