UF Health Science Center celebrates 50th anniversary of first groundbreaking

It was 1954. British runner Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile, the first transistor radio was marketed and, in Florida, an unassuming event began a new era in health care.

In an obscure corner of the campus, University of Florida administrators and supporters broke ground for the Medical Sciences Building.

It marked a tangible step toward construction of a state-operated academic health center, said Mark Barrow, M.D., a member of the UF College of Medicine’s first graduating class and author of several articles on the college’s early history. It also was the last step in a long struggle to have that health center established in Gainesville.

“(State) Senator (William A.) Shands and (state) Representative Ralph Turlington worked very hard on that,” Barrow said in a recent interview. “Other, larger cities were vying to get the medical school.”

A UF health center had been contemplated since at least the early 1940s, when the university’s third president, John J. Tigert, M.A., began discussing the idea publicly, Barrow wrote in a 1968 article published in the “Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences.” At the same time, various Florida physicians advocated creation of a state medical school, but disagreed on where it should be located.

A state study authorized in 1947 recommended establishing schools of medicine, nursing and dentistry at UF, according to Barrow’s article. In April 1949, the Legislature authorized creation of medical and nursing schools, but offered no building funds.

Newly arrived UF President J. Hillis Miller, Ph.D., intent on establishing the schools, found help from allies including Shands, Turlington, Jacksonville physician T.Z. Cason, M.D. and Gainesville physician William C. Thomas, Sr., M.D., Barrow’s article said. A more in-depth study begun in 1952 outlined how a health center based at UF could serve the state’s needs and in April 1953 the Legislature appropriated $5 million to the building project, recommending that the 30-year-old UF College of Pharmacy be added to the center at a later date, Barrow’s article said. One leader of the 1952 study, Russell S. Poor, Ph.D., was named provost of the nascent UF Health Center in August 1953.

Another leader of the study, George T. Harrell Jr., M.D., was named dean of the UF College of Medicine in October 1953. By all accounts, he was the ideal man for the job, said Nina Stoyan-Rosenzweig, UF College of Medicine historian. Already familiar with the project, Harrell was able to plan the Medical Sciences Building facilities down to the smallest details even though he had no background in architecture or building construction.

“He had a tremendous ability to foresee how people would use the space. He also apparently was a wonderful diagnostician — he could look at people and get a sense of what their problem might be,” Stoyan-Rosenzweig said. “I think he was very perceptive and observant.”

Harrell had a great deal of commitment to medical students, corresponding with early UF College of Medicine graduates until his death Aug. 26, 1999, at the age of 91, said granddaughter Heather Harrell, M.D., a UF assistant professor of internal medicine. Nonetheless, he believed the College of Medicine should be more than just a place to train doctors, it should care for the community.

“He involved the students with the community early (in their education),” Heather Harrell said. “I think he ultimately was motivated by his background — his mother died of tuberculosis and I think that very much influenced his vision of health care, in terms of public health and the community, involving the community in health care.”

Photos of the June 1, 1954, groundbreaking ceremony show a jubilant Harrell at the controls of a crane-like piece of construction equipment, along with Shands, Turlington, state Rep. J. Emory Cross and acting UF President John Allen, Ph.D., who had assumed leadership of the university after Miller’s untimely death the previous November.

Shortly after the groundbreaking, the Rusk Engineering Company of Birmingham, Ala., began excavation prior to pouring a concrete slab six to eight feet thick, a foundation that would evenly distribute the Medical Sciences Building’s weight, Barrow’s article said.

In early 1955 the Arnold Construction Company of West Palm Beach, Fla., submitted a winning bid for construction of the Medical Sciences Building, and the cornerstone was laid March 28, Barrow’s article said. The Legislature appropriated $8.6 million for construction of a teaching hospital April 13.

Also in early 1955, the state Board of Control changed the health center’s name to the J. Hillis Miller Health Center, to honor the late UF president, Barrow’s article said. Meanwhile, Harrell began interviewing prospective students, working in a temporary building called Grove Hall, Barrow recalled.

“I went by to see him and he was unpacking boxes and I talked to him for a couple of hours,” Barrow said of a 1955 meeting. “He wanted to see a transcript, which I had, and he looked at it for a little while and said ‘you’ll be our first pupil.’ I said, ‘that’s it? That’s all?’”

Harrell also began hiring basic-science faculty in 1955, Stoyan-Rosenzweig said. He preferred those with new ideas and plenty of energy, said respiration expert Arthur Otis, Ph.D., a UF professor emeritus who was hired in 1956 as chairman of the physiology department.

“It was a special opportunity to be a first chairman in a new medical school,” Otis said. “George Harrell left us very much to do what we wanted to do.”

Harrell and Poor spent considerable time touring the state between early 1955 and fall 1956 to promote awareness and support of the center, Barrow’s article said. As visual aids, Harrell carried glass slides and a tabletop model comprised of wooden blocks that represented the center’s buildings.

As construction progressed, the College of Nursing took shape. In November 1955, Dorothy M. Smith, M.Ed., of the Hartford Hospital School of Nursing, in Hartford, Conn. was hired to serve as the college’s first dean, Barrow’s article said. Much like Harrell, Smith was an idealist, with progressive notions on how best to educate students.

But those were not the only reasons Smith was an ideal dean, said Jodi Irving, M.S., A.R.N.P., a UF assistant professor of nursing who arrived at the college in 1965.

“She already had the clinical perspective from her previous work, plus she had administrative talent,” Irving said. “Her association with the National League for Nursing gave her a national view of nursing and the state of nursing education for the times.

Additionally, she had the right mix of intellect, courage, assertiveness and ‘brashness’ to move nursing education into academia.”

Barrow recalls Dean Smith well, from encounters with her during his studies.

“She was a fireball,” he said. “She came down and met with the medical students and talked to them and so forth, making a big push that doctors and nurses had different missions and we were a team and we were not above them, and was very convincing about it.”

Groundbreaking for the Teaching Hospital took place in April 1956, as the opening date for the health center approached, Barrow’s article said. Forty-seven applicants were accepted to the College of Medicine’s first class, 25 to the College of Nursing’s first class.

The Medical Sciences Building was dedicated Oct. 12-13, 1956, Barrow’s article said. The building comprised 238,000 square feet and had cost $5.4 million.

Musculoskeletal pathology expert William Enneking, M.D., a UF professor emeritus of orthopaedics and rehabilitation, arrived at the center in 1959 to become the College of Medicine’s first division chief of orthopedic surgery. He said the extraordinary cooperation and collegiality of the faculty helped the college get off to a successful start.

Enneking’s long-time colleague J.S. Gravenstein, M.D., a UF graduate research professor emeritus of anesthesiology and the college’s first division chief of anesthesiology, agreed.

“When you start out with a new place, like a baby, you don’t know what it’s going to turn into, if it’s going to be a strong, important person or a failure,” said Gravenstein, who arrived at UF in 1958.

“And the baby turned out to be a very strong and very important presence in medicine, not only in the United States but worldwide.”

The College of Nursing graduated its first class June 5, 1960, awarding bachelor of science in nursing degrees to 25 students, according to college records. The College of Medicine graduated its first class the next day, awarding doctor of medicine degrees to 40 students, according to college records. In February 1978 the Medical Sciences Building was renamed The Chandler A. Stetson Medical Sciences Hall, after the late College of Medicine Dean and Vice President for Health Affairs Chandler A. Stetson Jr., M.D., who served during the 1970s.

The College of Health Related Services joined the health center in 1958, accepting its first students in September 1959,Stoyan-Rosenzweig said. Its first dean, Darrel J. Mase, Ph.D., had led UF’s Florida Center of Clinical Services, which predated the college, and been involved in the 1952 study along with Harrell. The college, now known as the College of Public Health and Health Professions, was the nation’s first to combine diverse health-related disciplines ancillary to the practice of medicine and nursing. The college’s first graduating class numbered 14 students, who received their degrees in June 1961, according to college records.

The UF College of Pharmacy, founded in 1923, was made a unit of the health center in 1954, according to college records, but for several years afterward it remained on the main campus. In November 1959, groundbreaking took place for a $2 million addition to the Medical Sciences Building to accommodate relocation of the college. In September 1961 the college moved into the 60,000 square-foot facility, which was formally dedicated the following April.

Although the Legislature authorized creation of a state dental school at UF in 1957, it was not until the spring of 1963 that it appropriated funds to begin planning for the College of Dentistry, according to college records. In May 1971, ground was broken for a $38 million health-center expansion that included construction of the Dental Sciences Building, which was formally dedicated in March 1976.

The College of Veterinary Medicine opened in 1976 and was the last college to join the health center. In 1965 the Legislature approved UF as the site of the state’s first veterinary college and four years later appropriated funds to begin planning and construction of facilities, according to college records. The college was officially established in 1973. Its first class was admitted in September 1976 and the college formally dedicated in March 1979.