There was a buzz going around WesternU Tuesday: Winnie the Pooh was on the Pomona campus.
Tom Gray, DO ’12, decided to don a Pooh costume to help him and his fellow students relax on test day, though at 6’7″”, Gray’s incarnation of A. A. Milne’s character might have been startling rather than relaxing.
“”It’s kind of fun,”” said Gray, a member of the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific’s Northwest Track. “”It makes everyone relax on test day, and I get extra attention.””
Tuesday’s test day was no different, except temperatures reached the upper 90s, making for one hot bear.
“”I started doing it for all the tests, but now I just wear it for the end-of-term finals,”” said Gray. “”It’s better that way because it’s not so obnoxious.””
Fellow students Mindy Chilman and Ariel Cohen, both DO ’12, said they have seen Gray on previous test days, and he’s pretty hard to miss.
“”It makes me feel better,”” said Nancy Chang, DO ’12, who saw Pooh after experiencing a few difficult spots on her test.
Gray also wore the Winnie the Pooh costume during graduation from MIT in 2001. His family includes three generations of osteopathic physicians: His grandfather, father, brother, aunt and two uncles.
“”Engineering was boring, and I wanted something more interesting, more meaning in my life, and to work with people,”” Gray said about his pursuit of a medical degree.
