Albany College of Pharmacy - Alembic Yearbook (Albany, NY)

Page 11 text:

SINCE OUR FOUNDING hvery twenty years society’s workshop needs cleaning up. Vices of men, of methods, and of ways, creep into the tidiest and best ordered of works, clogging the machinery, driving out the spirit, and setting up the letter instead, and the schools get into deep ruts on the line of march. It is at such junctures that men like the founders of Albany College of Pharmacy put their shoulders to the wheel. The Albany College of Pharmacy was founded in 1881 in Albany, New York as the Department of Pharmacy of Union University. There were only thirteen colleges of Pharmacy in the United States at that time, and only one in New York State. The first faculty consisted of Dr. Jacob S. Mosher, Professor of Botany arid Materia Medica; Dr. William G. Tucker. Professor of Chemistry; and Mr. Gustavus Michaelis, Professor of Pharmacy. The first years of instruction were given in the Albany Medical College, also a department of Union Univer- sity. Various temporary quarters were used until 1909 when all courses were centered in a separate building on Eagle Street just opposite the Medical College. This arrangement was continued until 1927. In that year the present building was erected as the first of a group of buildings to be constructed by the University. The building was enlarged in 1957 by the addition of the Arthur Wardle Diamond Jubilee W ing. Since 1881, there have been 3661 graduates, including 388 women. Most of the graduates have found careers in retail pharmacy, hospital pharmacy or in pharmaceutical laboratories. The first commencement was held in the amphitheater of the Medical College on the evening of February 28, 1882. Degrees were conferred on three candidates. In 1883 there were ten graduates, and classes in recent years have numbered between eighty and a hundred. The class of 1965 is the first to graduate under the new five year program. The additional year is devoted al- most entirely to courses in the Liberal Arts, but it also has proved advantageous in that a better sequence of courses is possible and elective courses are offered so that a student may have special training in the field of his greatest interest.

Page 13 text:

DEAN’S MESSAGE Graduates of 1965: I am happy to congratulate you on the occasion of your Commencement, the first to be held under the five year program. The completion of your undergraduate program means that the time has arrived when you must make a decision for your future activities. Some of you have already decided to con- tinue your education. Your immediate future will be essentially a continuation of your present activities although your responsibilities will be greater. But for most of you Commencement means a termination of full time formal education and a beginning of your professional career. You will seek a place in a community of your choice to work and to live. I am confident of your professional ability and I hope that we have impressed upon you the necessity for continued growth not only in professional matters but in your contribution to the civic ac- tivities of your community. Do not make the mistake of considering yourself a “self made person” as a result of your individual ef- fort with no help from society. You are deeply indebted to the past and present generations who by their hard work and profound thinking have made possible the many scientific, cultural and educational advantages you enjoy today. You are expected to repay at least a small part of this debt by contributing of your skill and your knowledge for the continued enrichment of present and future generations as urell as your own personal progress. You cannot live and expect to be respected for your past achievements alone. You must continue to achieve or you will soon be relegated to the junk pile of forgotten human beings who are no longer useful to society but must be tolerated by it. The age of learning has been extended to the time of retirement. A continuation of learning is necessary if you are to avoid the personal obsolescence that begins the moment you terminate it. Fortunately you will have this opportunity by participation in post graduate seminars, professional and civic meetings that sponsor continued intellectual growth and by taking advantage of the many programs presented by the press, radio, and television which are devoted to the dissemination of knowledge. I have enjoyed my years with you and extend my best wishes to each of you for a happy and useful professional, home, and civic life. I hope that you will from time to time refresh my pleasant memories of you by keeping me informed of your future activities in which I am so very much interested. FRANCIS J. O’BRIEN Dean