Ben Portnoy

Ben grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio where he began his writing career as co-editor of the feature page of the Walnut Hills High School’s weekly newspaper, the Chatterbox. He briefly held the nickname “Wombat,” so his column, “The Wombat Weeports” appeared weekly for a year. Then writing disappeared as Ben attended Harvard College where he studied Russian Literature. After that he got his M.D. degree at Case Western Reserve University and continued his internal medicine training at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He joined the U.S. Public Health Service Center for Disease Control and was sent as a field officer to Houston. On January 3, 1973, while pushing a baby carriage down the street while wearing a T-shirt – no need for a winter coat – Ben decided that he would never leave the Houston area. After finishing training in Infectious Diseases at the U.T. Medical School, Ben practiced internal medicine and consulted on infectious diseases for the next 44 years. Upon retiring, he recalled his high school days and began writing again.