For a group of boys and girls at King David high school in the Linksfield suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, childhood ended early—before they were men and women—amid the violent changes of South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s—and they were cast like seeds to the wind to Australia, the United States, Canada, Britain, and Israel.
Who could have imagined that this particular class of boys and girls from Johannesburg’s King David High School would become the CEO of Getty Images, the head of Asia Pacific for JP Morgan, a professor of spine surgery and MIS surgery at one of the top ranked academic institutions in the U.S., and an inventor of miniaturized medical imaging technologies and author of more than 61 peer reviewed studies (1,919 citations) and much more?
A Gathering Diaspora
Between 1970 and 1992, South Africa transformed from an apartheid political and social system to a representative democracy and Black majority rule. It was a violent and economically disruptive time. For the immediate Jewish community represented by the King David schools—one of the foundational institutions of the South African Jewish community—it prompted an exodus. All told, more than 39,000 Jews left South Africa in direct response to a dramatic surge in violent crime rates and the economic uncertainty of that period. About 40% emigrated to Australia, 20% to the United States, 15% to Israel and 10% each to Britain and Canada.
Many families, like those of Frank Phillips, M.D. (professor, director of section of minimally invasive spine surgery, and director of division of spine surgery at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago) and Bradley Patt, Ph.D. (CEO TheraCell, Inc.) had to stay in South Africa, so their children went ahead, largely on their own.
The South African Jewish community, while not large, represented a significant percentage of white citizens who opposed apartheid. “Our high school [King David] had a fairly liberal orientation,” remembers Frank Phillips. “It was a very political time. There was no way to not be caught up in politics then. So much was changing: the Soweto riots and Mandela’s eventual release from Robben Island.”
“I was really into history and my history teacher in my final year of high school was a self-proclaimed communist. He would periodically disappear for a week or two, being detained by the Police. I remember the Soweto riots in 1976. At school we’d all go out on the balcony and we could actually see smoke from the adjacent townships like Soweto. Right after that a lot of families began packing up to leave South Africa.”
Building Confident, Determined Mensches
The King David Day schools were founded in 1948 and quickly became the centerpiece of the small Johannesburg Jewish community. Their stated goal, then as now, was to “produce graduates who are mensches, confident and equipped to pursue any opportunity, who are proud of their Jewish heritage and its traditions, who have a love for learning, and a determination to contribute to their society.”
Today, the King David schools are amongst the largest Jewish day schools in the world.
“My high school experience was wonderful” remembers Frank Phillips. “There were 200 kids in our grade. It was very competitive. South Africa had been a British Colony, and our schools were largely based on the British educational system. We wore school uniforms, hair had to be cut a certain length and played rugby and cricket. As students, we didn’t have a lot of choices—including which classes to take. In the final year of high school students had a mandatory 6 or 7 subjects with perhaps one or two other choices.”
Leaving South Africa
It was early December, on the last day of Brad Patt’s Form 4 (essentially 11th grade in the British Form system of education) when his parents decided to send their 16-year-old son to the United States.
Brad, today a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, founder and CEO of multiple companies, currently CEO of TheraCell and the founder of Outside the Box non-profit, was still a year away from his scheduled high school graduation.
“My parents were so scared of the Army that they offered me a chance to go to the U.S. I already had a U.S. passport and half of our family lived in Chicago. It took me two seconds to decide. I literally packed and left behind friends and family. But I have always had that spirit, and no fear. I left South Africa on December 25, 1976. The plan was to take advantage of the phase difference between U.S. and South African school years and finish high school in 6 months.”
Bad plan.
To get a high school diploma in the U.S., students are required to know U.S. history, civics, government, the Constitution and, given the U.S. car culture, driver’s education.
Not possible in six months.
Brad’s Uncle Herman, however, had heard about an early University admission program for bright high school students—providing, said the school counselor in Chicago, the student has high SAT scores. “What’s an SAT?” said Brad.
Whereupon the counselor pulled out the exam and administered it to Brad on the spot.
To put this scene in perspective, it’s helpful to understand Brad Patt’s King David’s experience. He wasn’t exactly the most focused student in the Linksfield suburb of Johannesburg.
“I spent a lot of time at the geek electronics shop in town and didn’t know enough to realize that I didn’t know what I was doing, and that it could be dangerous. I built tons of stuff. In form 3 my friend and I built a mobile discotheque (“Mobile Music”) from scratch.”
“We built a lot of the stuff during lunch breaks at school. We built a two-turntable deck and switch panel decked out with 12V switches. We lost some switches because 12V switches don’t work well with 220V. One day we were building a strobe light using monster capacitors and I asked my mate to hold the wires on the posts to check if it was working (bad idea) and flipped the switch. He screamed and his hair stood straight up. Another time we were building a bubble blower in the classroom and the bubbles blew straight onto the wall plug soaking it and the room lights popped and went out. The entire school went dark for several hours.”
Brad joined a band (drummer), played gigs at bar- and bat mitzvahs and also founded a disc jockey business using his jerry-rigged DJ system. Most requested song? “Radar Love’”by Golden Earring!
Of course, 16-year-old Brad Patt nailed the SAT, first try.
He was accepted into the School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois, home of the William L. Everitt lab. That particular lab is legendary for its groundbreaking work during World War II and in the 1950s and 1960s in advanced signal processing. During World War II, that meant advances in radar. During the 1950s and 1960s, it meant antenna matching and feeding, high-power radio amplification and time compression to speed up recorded speech or music. It was at the forefront of the development of the transistor, and in the 1960s and 1970s it resulted in creating the first integrated circuit chip and figuring out the basic principles for signal processing in the computer (later internet) age. The ideal spot, in other words, for a teenage Brad Patt.
While Dr. Patt never did earn his high school diploma, he did earn two bachelor’s degrees (BSEE and a BS in Biophysics) from the University of Illinois, a Master of Science in Engineering degree from California Polytechnic University and a Ph.D. (while also working full time) in electrical engineering (2D Signal Processing, Imaging) from the University of California at Santa Barbara, published his first refereed journal article in the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science at age 26, and first book chapter on Low Noise Electronics for X-Ray and Gamma Ray Spectrometry at age 35.
Frank Phillips and Denise Walt
Frank graduated from King David in 1977 and, as is the custom for students aspiring to become physicians, applied for and was accepted into ‘Wit’s’ (pronounced vits) medical school, otherwise known as University of the Witwatersrand, the highest ranked university in Africa. Frank Phillips, who is married to his King David classmate, Denise Walt, M.D., entered medical school at age 18, published his first study at age 21 (Hydration in Rugby Players), graduated medical school at 23 and then performed his compulsory military service as a medical officer.
It was now 1985. “Between 1983 and 1985, many educated people started leaving South Africa.” Remembers Frank, “There was real political upheaval. Burning in the streets of Johannesburg.” So, Frank decided to emigrate to the United States.
Frank wrote to every academic medical institution he could reach in the U.S. trying to get into an orthopedic program. “It was really hard to get started in the U.S. in Orthopaedics as a foreign medical school graduate.” He ultimately found a research gig in orthopedics at The University of Chicago believing he could parle this into acceptance into an Orthopaedic Residency. “I was doing hard core basic science. My first research paper in the United States was around Proteoglycan Matrix in Articular Cartilage.”
Dr. Phillip’s completed his Orthopaedic Surgery residency at The University of Chicago, then a Spine Surgery fellowship in Cleveland. He is currently Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Director of Spine Surgery at Rush University Hospital in Chicago (ranked in the top 5 orthopedic programs in the U.S.).
Decades Pass, Then, Remarkably…
For 30 years Brad Patt had almost no contact with his former King David classmates. Frank Phillips was busy with his practice and his growing responsibilities as a leader in spine care, product development and surgeon training.
Little did they realize that their paths were about to cross in an utterly random and unexpected way.
“At the annual Cabo Spine meeting directed by Dr Phillips, an Israeli scientist reached out about oxygenation technology he was working on out of Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles and who knew Dr. Neel Anand,” remembers Frank. “We liked his idea and discussed commercializing it. We sat down with the Israeli inventor, Neel and a couple other spine surgeon friends and start-up colleagues and, together, we decided to move forward.”
“The technology is a way of delivering a super-concentrated supply of oxygen to, for example, the fusion site. The idea was that you could deliver DBM [demineralized bone matrix] or DBF [demineralized bone fiber] with a high concentration of oxygen. We all decided to start a company around this. The Israeli co-founder said to us, ‘There’s a guy I know in Los Angeles and our kids know each other. If he’s interested maybe he’ll be the CEO.’”
“So, we asked for his name and the answer came back ‘Brad Patt.’”
“The name immediately triggered a flash back to high school. So, I asked, “where he’s from and what high school did he attend”. The email comes back: King David high school in Johannesburg.”
Reunion
Brad and Frank were classmates from first grade through high school. But since then, for 30 years, had no contact whatsoever. Neither had a clue where the other was in the world.
Brad was not in any orthopedic or spine field and Frank could turn on a switch but had no concept of the signal processing technology behind Brad’s imaging systems.
That Cabo meeting was more than a dozen years ago and since then, Frank and Brad have become business partners—picking up from where they left off in the mid-70s.
“Working with Brad is great. Brad is one of the best start up CEO guys I’ve worked with. He’s incredibly smart, fair, transparent with the ability to drive consensus. He’s one of the most trustworthy people I know.”
“We’ve done three companies together now. When there is an issue, a board issue, for example, Brad will reach out to me given our bond and common value system.”
Two years ago, several King David High School classmates decided to organize a 40-year reunion for that special King David class in New York.
Neither Brad nor Frank expected more than, maybe, 10 people to show up. Seventy came. Even the headmaster from that era flew in. Remembers Frank, “It was crazy. Our headmaster was 80 years old and he remembered every kid! We spent two days together and after all these years, the high school bond, angst included, was still there.”
King David had some magic sauce. These boys and girls from Johannesburg armed with a King David education entered their strange new worlds confident, smart, goal oriented and, as all good mensches must be, ethical and selfless. What a story. L’chaim!
