Deborah Senft

Debbie Senft came first to the Cape at three months of age, having been born in New York City in March 1927 -- which, she says, always made her feel like a "washashore". As her family lived at this time in Cambridge, where her MD father had a Rockefeller Institute lab at Harvard, they built a summer home in Woods Hole in 1927. All her youngest years were spent here in the summer with her four older brothers and sisters. Upon her father's death when she was six years old, she went to live with old family friends in Connecticut, where she was the oldest of five children. She moved to New York City when her mother remarried, and then to boarding school at twelve. First, she went to Garrison Forest school in Maryland and then to Northampton School for Girls from which she graduated in 1948. She chose to go to Mills College in Oakland, CA, to get as far away as possible from Smith College where her mother and two sisters went.

During her junior year at Mills, Debbie spent a year at the University of Zurich. There she met Alfred Senft who was spending a year in Switzerland after serving in the war in Okinawa. They spent their spring vacation traveling together through Spain and North Africa, including Tangiers.

Before returning to the States, they decided to spend a summer traveling in Europe. They acquired a jeep and camping equipment and drove through Czechoslovakia during 1947, the only year it was free before Russia occupied the country. They went on to Nuremburg, where they were able to attend a session at the second year of the Nuremburg Trials, and then across Germany to the Low Lands, which were totally flattened by the war, and finally to England before returning home.

Al and Debbie were married in Woods Hole in August 1948, after Debbie had graduated from Mills, majoring in physiology, and Al from Berkeley. From there, they returned to Cambridge, where Al spent four years at Harvard Medical School and Debbie completed an MA in physiology at Boston University's medical school. Debbie then worked at MIT in one of the early labs developing computers (mostly doing soldering!). Summer vacations were always spent in Woods Hole at the family house on Vineyard Sound.

After more training at Chapel Hill, NC, they took a leap of faith and moved to New Guinea, where Al worked as a medical missionary. However, this was not to be his career for he preferred the medical over the missionary part of his work. Debbie took care of young Steve (two years old) and did not participate much in the mission. Al traveled a good deal in New Guinea that year.

Back in the US again, Al completed a master's degree in public administration at Harvard focusing on research in tropical medicine, having recognized in New Guinea it would be more helpful for the local people if doctors knew why patients became sick again and again rather than just treating them. Al and Debbie then returned to Woods Hole, where it was possible to have a lab at MBL and a private medical practice as well.

During the years from 1958 to 1968, the Senfts had two little girls. Via one of his patients, Al received an offer from Brown University to establish a new department as Professor of Geographical Medicine. He also continued research in parasitology, where Debbie helped him for a number of years.

When Debbie turned 50, she wanted to do something more related to people and became an Associate Director of Volunteers with Hospice, and also was a volunteer herself. At this time, there were only three hospices in the country. Earlier, in 1955, the Senfts bought over four acres of land in Woods Hole and began building their house. It was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright whom they had met in Zurich and who was best man at their wedding. Wright is perhaps the most famous of all American-born architects, and their house reflects the influence of his teaching. It appears unpretentious on approach and sits on a steep slope of land, its dark brown color blending in seamlessly with the wooded landscape that surrounds it.

When Al retired in 1968, they moved back to Woods Hole to finish their house. Al had hoped to continue working in MBL and Brown labs, but he died of a brain tumor in 1990. Debbie then turned her attention to Falmouth's free clinic and was one of the early formulators, working with a great group of volunteers, as well as continuing hospice work here on the Cape.

While they traveled often to international tropical medical meetings (in East Germany, Poland, France, Germany, and Italy), it was some years after Al died that Debbie started her adventure travels. She took each of the grandchildren to a country of their choice in the Elderhostel Grand-parent/Grandchild program. She especially loved the times in Africa with the animals.

For other travels with a friend from Australia, her list of favorite countries includes Bhutan ("Gross National Happiness"), Buddhist countries, far west China, and North Pakistan. As the saying goes, she doesn't like going places where everyone is in three-piece suits, much like the USA.

Debbie herself has recently come through a major crisis in her life, one of which she has no memory at all. For seven weeks she was in intensive care at Cape Cod Hospital after an aortic valve open-heart surgery in January 2012. While the surgery was successful, use of the heart/lung machine resulted in many of her bodily functions shutting down. Fortunately, her brain turned off her memory also, for during her hospital stay and much of her four months in rehab, she has no recollection of the entire event. Today she is a healthy, bright-eyed individual with a zest for life and is planning a trip to the prehistoric caves of France next fall. This planned vacation is a continuation of the life Debbie loves to lead, similar to the many travels she has enjoyed in the past.