For Mark Eastham, MD'82, the course to a fulfilling medical career took a somewhat unusual route. It was first set on a summer day in the waters off Cape Cod, after a preliminary stop at the Hyannis Port estate of a rather well-known Massachusetts family. Many years later, the Lowell native is funding a scholarship at UMass Chan Medical School to help aspiring physicians launch their own careers in medicine.

“I never considered a medical career early in life, which seems to be the case with many physicians,” Dr. Eastham said.  “It really came about by chance.” That moment of chance arrived during a high school summer break, when his Aunt Dot offered a room in her home on the Cape, with one stipulation—he needed to have a job lined up.

An initial gig as a sanitation worker, secured through a family friend, didn’t pan out. During Dr. Eastham’s first day on the job, the crew serviced the Kennedy compound, where the smell of lobster shells emanating from the swill bucket (definition: in-ground receptacle for organic waste) made him intensely nauseous. He quit on the spot.

It was a fortuitous setback. A local lifeguarding position had just opened that day, which he immediately snagged with great delight. In that coveted role, he rescued a man who was drowning 10 feet from shore, an unexpectedly powerful experience for the teenager, who decided then and there to pursue a medical career.

Dr. Eastham majored in biology at UMass Lowell and got his feet wet as a nursing assistant at St. Joseph’s Hospital (now closed), where the medical staff “went out of their way” to guide the aspiring physician. In 1978 he matriculated at UMass Chan, where the next four years were filled with “incredibly fun memories” alongside an intense focus on learning. He’s still in regular contact with a large group of classmates who forged close bonds at the Medical School.

He credits UMass Chan with preparing him for a successful career in neurosurgery, his path to that specialty yet another instance of happenstance. During his residency in general surgery, he successfully operated on a hit-and-run victim with a brain injury who had already been declared beyond resuscitation by the chief resident (he also dislodged a license plate from the victim’s back, revealing the driver’s identity). Like that day on the beach, it was a profound moment. Dr. Eastham practiced neurosurgery in Brooklyn, New York City and California for many years before returning to Massachusetts.

On a recent visit to campus, he observed the Medical School’s incredible transformation.

“The school has grown in leaps and bounds,” Dr. Eastham said. “The campus is unrecognizable today.” 

Establishing a scholarship at UMass Chan is a way to repay his deep gratitude for the excellent, affordable education he received. He also acknowledges the wider role of the public higher education system in Massachusetts and its ripple effect on his life. For instance, his Aunt Dot, who paid for his tuition during medical school, was educated at the UMass Lowell School of Education, along with his mother.  

“I owe so much to UMass Chan and the Massachusetts state education system,” Dr. Eastham said. “The opportunities afforded to me through my education were incredible. It’s a feeling I’ve had my whole life. I think it’s important to give back to the system that gave me so much.”

Dr. Eastham is also endowing a scholarship at UMass Lowell, and is eager to see students from the greater Lowell area succeed in higher education and beyond. He notes that he admires the unique sense of pride and authenticity that prevails among the citizens of his hometown, a sentiment he recently discussed with UMass President Marty Meehan, also a Lowell native and 1978 graduate of UMass Lowell.

These days, you’ll find Dr. Eastham back on the Cape, often behind the helm of a sailboat in the waters where he first saved a human life. He’s thrilled for the opportunity to assist future generations of physicians as they chart their own course to fulfilling careers in medicine.