Series 4 University of Florida, VPHA Records

This series is composed of papers from the Office of the Senior Vice President, Health Affairs.  This title supercedes the title of “Provost of Health Affairs.”

Agency Note:  The office of Vice President for Health Affairs was originally known as the Provost.  This office- either as Provost or VPHA has changed over time, and has at times been abolished.  The Provost oversees all six colleges within the Health Science Center and originally had oversight of the hospital.  The first Provost was Russell Poor, who originally acted as Director of the Medical Center Study.  He became provost after the Health Center came into existence.  He was replaced by Dr. Samuel Martin, first Chair of the Department of Medicine, College of Medicine.  (The first university provost was Bob Mautz who started in office in 1958.)  The Director/CEO of Shands became a separate office in under Russell Jordan in 1959, although Russell Poor held the title of Shands Director for a year while he was still Provost/VPHA.

 

The Health Science Center was first conceived of as the Medical Center, and was planned over a period starting in the 1940s, when the decision to site a medical school at Gainesville was first reached by the state legislature.  The first two colleges in the center were Medicine and Nursing followed in 1959 by the College of Health Related Services (later named Health Related Professions in 1964, then Health Professions in 1996).  The College of Pharmacy moved down from the main campus in 1961.  The College of Dentistry opened in 1972, Vet Med in 1976.  The hospital opened in 1958, and was first overseen by the provost/VP but its administration was separated in 1959.  It later became a separate, nonprofit organization, officially not a part of the University.  The VA Hospital opened in 1967; physicians at the VA have joint appointments at UF-COM.  The first three provosts each served for fairly lengthy periods, but when Dr. Chandler Stetson passed away after two years in office, there was a period of relative instability with Dr. Finger serving as interim VP on several occasions.  In fact, in the period from 1974-1982, there were 5 vice presidents, with Dr Finger serving 3 times- twice as interim and once as vice president.  During the vice presidency of Dr. David Challoner, 1982-1998, there was a move to reorganize the administration of the health center and the vice-president position was actually abolished in 1996.  It was reinstated in 1998, however when Dr. Kenneth I. Berns became Dean of the College of Medicine and Vice-President of the Health Science Center.  The strength of the position tended to depend on finances and the ability of the provost/vice-president to control finances.

 

Russell S. Poor, PhD- 1954-1961

Samuel Martin, MD 1961- 1969

Edmund S. Ackell, DMD, MD 1969-1974

Kenneth Finger, PhD 1974-1975 (interim)

Chandler A. Stetson, MD 1975-1977

Kenneth Finger, PhD 1977-1978 (interim)

William B. Deal MD 1978-1980

Kenneth Finger PhD 1980-1982

David R. Challoner, MD 1982-1998

Kenneth I. Berns MD, PhD 1998-2000 (interim)

Kenneth I. Berns, MD, PhD 2000-2002

General Timeline for Health Center and College of Medicine

1880sThe Tallahassee College of Medicine and Surgery opens in Tallahassee and moves to Lake City.  It only remains open for a few years.

1923 College of Pharmacy opens on campus

Dr. Townes R. Leigh becomes director and later Dean when the school becomes a College in 1925.

1945Governor Caldwell’s Citizens Committee on Education began a comprehensive study and survey of education in Florida.

1947Citizen’s Committee Report calls for a medical school at University of Florida in Gainesville.

Legislature asks for money for study to determine need for medical and dental college in Florida.

1948Board of Control and State Board of Education appointed a Committee with Dr. Vernon Lippard as head.

Cancer Research Laboratory established as an independent research unit.

1949Lippard Report filed, authorizing a medical school and dental school, again supporting Gainesville as the site.

The state legislature decides on Gainesville as the official site for the state medical school.

1951Legislature passed bill appropriating $100,000 for the purpose of creating plans.

1952Medical Center Study, headed by Dr. Russell Poor and conceived of by J. Hillis Miller, begins, using money from the Commonwealth Fund rather than the $100,000 from the legislature.

Darrell Mase and George T. Harrell involved

1953 University of Miami opens its medical school.

Medical Center Study completed and published.

1954Foundation poured for Medical Center.

College of Pharmacy was made a unit of the Health Center and planning began for COP building in HSC.

Dr. George T. Harrell becomes first Dean of the College of Medicine.

1956 Doors open for first class at COM, Dorothy Smith hired as Dean of COM, College of Nursing opens

1957College of Dentistry approved at Gainesville.

1958 Plans to merge Cancer Research Laboratory with the college of Pharmacy to form the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry.

Dr. Russell Poor is Acting Director of the Teaching Hospital.

The Hospital admits first patient.

Dr. Darrell J. Mase Dean of the College of Health Related Services.

UF desegregates

1959 College of Health Related Services opens, first open heart surgery is performed at Shands

  1. Russell Jordan became Director of Teaching Hospital. Teaching Hospital and Clinics are formally dedicated.Ground broken for Pharmacy wing.

1960 First medical school class graduates- first Asian, Latinos, woman, first nursing class graduates

1961 Veterans Administration Hospital in Gainesville is approved.

Pharmacy moves into building and classes are held.

1962 New eye clinic, artificial kidney machine, Clinical Research Center opens, College of Pharmacy relocates from campus, Pharmacy building dedication.

UF Teaching Hospital receives one of state’s four kidney dialysis machines

1964 Ground breaking for VA Hospital

1965 Hospital officially named Shands, Gatorade is invented

1966 Rural clinics in North central Florida

1967 100,000 patient treated, Phase I of the Human Development Center is dedicated, VA Hospital dedicated

1969 Lafayette Cty Health Center opens, rural health care clinic staffed by Colleges of Medicine and Nursing, First Hippocratic award given, first kidney transplant from a live donor performed on UF law student at Shands Hospital

1970 UF graduates first black physicians, Dr. Earl Cotman and Dr. Reuben Brigety

1971 Ground is broken for Dental Tower, Communicore, 3 patient floors

1972 College of Dentistry opens, Chandler Stetson dean, 200,000 patient treated

1974 Communicore Building opens

1976 College of Veterinary Medicine opens, J. Patrick O’Leary(’67) first alumnus to receive Hippocratic award

1980 UF’s kidney transplantation program, founded by Dr. William Pfaff, who performed the first successful transplant in Florida, performs landmark 400th transplant

1982 Nation’s first neonatal foal intensive care unit opens at UF veterinary hospital; Ronald McDonald House opens near Shands

1985 First cochlear implant device to restore hearing impairment performed at Shands; Bioglass implants also used by UF researchers to restore hearing in first human patients with damaged middle-ear bones, helping patients like Shands pediatric nurse Jinger Jones to hear again

1985 UF’s heart and liver transplant programs begin

1986  Florida’s first Hope Lodge for cancer patients opens near UF campus

1987 Florida Probe, an instrument measuring loss of support tissue around teeth, is developed at UF’s dental college

1990 Lab-grown skin grafts for burn victims developed by UF researcher Dr. Ammon Peck President George Bush declares the 1990s “Decade of the Brain” in support of basic research

1992 UF College of Pharmacy’s Drug Information Service celebrates 20th year of statewide service; UF receives $18 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to build a neuroscience research center, the UF Brain Institute

1994 PerioGlas, a bioactive glass developed at UF for restoring jaw bone, goes on worldwide market. First lung transplant in Florida performed at Shands

1995 Southeast’s first umbilical cord blood transplant on an infant and adult performed; state’s first kidney/pancreas transplant occurs; first gene therapy treatment for brain cancer is done. HIV saliva test, developed by UF veterinarian, is released to the marketplace in several foreign countries; 13-week-old Gary Weems of Pensacola, Fla., has a heart transplant performed at Shands, becoming first infant to undergo a heart transplant in Florida