Louisiana State University Shreveport Medical School - Pulse Yearbook (Shreveport, LA)

Page 9 text:

is 'Til 3 . bt B ,,. If I 1 Iii i . I . , , is I is F' I Q Q M I is 7 I , J? If 5- -in-..... If THE HISTORY OF LSU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE IN SHREVEPORT Danny S. Wood The IOOth medical school to be estab- lished in the United States was created on Monday, May 31, 1965, when Repre- sentative J. Bennett Johnston, Jr. of Caddo Parish steered a bill through the House of Representatives in Baton Rouge to found a new medical school in Shreve- port. The bill passed, fifty-seven to forty- three, in the House, and by June 7 of the same year the Senate authorized it and Governor John J. McKeithen put the fin- ishing touch on the bill with his signature. So the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in Shreveport was formally created in roughly a week - but its beginnings go back a little farther - ten years, in fact, before the bill ever hit the State Legislature. Since l955, Dr. Joe E. Holoubek had headed a committee of the Shreveport Medical Society to get a medical school located in Shreveport. So in June of I965, after ten years of work, worry, but always optimism, dreams were changed to realities and work was turned into more work and planning. A dean was needed for the school, and a dean was acquired - the Dean of Louisiana medicine - Dr. X

Page 8 text:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We hope that you will enioy this first edition of the THRILL as much as we have benefited from working on it this year. As you already know, we had a very late start and, as it turned out, that was not the only problem we encountered. Our rush schedule made many compromises necessary, and many times even as we were preparing sections for the publisher we found large gaps in our cover- age. I feel, however, that the THRILL is one of many small steps forward which, when added together, will plainly demonstrate that the Louisiana State University School of Medicine in Shreveport is one of the most progressive schools in the nation. This is a tribute to both the faculty and the student body and our ability to work so closely together. One look at the long list of Endowments, Sponsors, and Patrons will show that we have many friends outside the school as well. For these reasons I am proud to have been a student here rather than anywhere else. l would like to thank first my little wife, Linda, who has been so patient and understanding during my involvement with the yearbook. Day in and day out she has walked around, over, and sometimes even under the plethora of pictures, layouts and letters which have infiltrated our home, trying without complaint to dust and vacuum whatever areas were left exposed. For her love l am especially grate- ful. Mr. Reggie Graves deserves the credit for making this first yearbook a reality. Without his tremen- dous assistance at the business end, the initial enthusiasm would surely have been lost in the fog of specifications, meetings, phone calls, bids and general red tape that accompanies any enterprise of this nature. Doctor George McCormick, our faculty advisor, was an invaluable asset. Consistently concerned, always ready to listen, and never too busy to discuss at length any problem from large to trivial, he was a true friend. David Carpenter, the assistant editor, was the only one of our staff with previous yearbook experi- ence, and to him we owe many short-cuts and much time saved. Kenny Sehon was in charge of advertising and this was certainly a difficult iob. lt would seem that company executives are even harder to catch in their offices than physicians! For all your time Kenny, thanks. Our secretaries, Debby Murray, Suzanne Sentell, and Amy Prather, worked long hours to type and send out the multiple array of letters involved. The THRILL would not have been possible without their patient assistance. Photography was a particularly ominous iob and our photographers deserve an award for putting up with the difficulties which confronted them. Thanks to Mike Freed, Mac Fitzsimmons, Tommy Carey, Barry Rills, Jeff Janies, Jim Richardson, Bill Haley, and Lenny Kancher for making all the great pictures possible. There were also students in each class who helped select shots of instructors, classmates, and events which were representative of their class during that year. Without Bill Haley, Ken Harrison, Russ Keasler, Brant Casford and David Carpenter the annual would surely have been without rhyme or reason. Danny Wood and Cliff Dopson spent a great deal of time on the history and caricatures and for the fantastic results we are certainly appreciative. Lastly, I appreciate all of the unnamed students and instructors who have expressed an interest in the THRILL this year. We trust that no one will be disappointed, as our guiding principle has been that anything less than excellence would be a misrepresentation. anfmwf

Page 10 text:

Edgar Hull. Dr. Hull, the associate dean of the L.S.U. Medical Center, was named interim dean of the new school by Dr. William W. Frye, chancellor of the L.S.U. Medical Center. A member of the Univer- sity's medical faculty for nearly thirty-five years, Dr. Hull had been serving as asso- ciate dean of the L.S.U. School of Medi- cine in New Orleans since 1954, and was also professor and head of its Department of Medicine. Also in 1966, Dr. George R. Meneely ioined Dean Hull as coordinator for development of plans and programs for the school, acting through the position of associate dean. Even with this excellent leadership, the fledgling medical school needed money - 530.5 million to be exact. The pro- curement of these funds had its start in December of 1966 when the State Legis- lature voted unanimously to finance part of the building of the school through a S10 million state bond issue. But there was still a matter of 320.5 million, which was sought from the federal government. Dean Hull stated in 1967, We're work- ing against a November 1 deadline for getting in our application for federal funds. We're working day andfnight - I work all day and the staff works all night. Not only can Dean Hull's wit be sensed in this quotation, but also the suc- cess of his hard work - for in December of 1969 it was announced that the appli- cation for 520.5 million in federal match- ing funds was approved by the federal government. Preparations were already underway . vt . v I 1 ll f N1- fix , tw 30 'Hur i li H1 1 for the school to acquire its first students. A contract was signed March 18, 1967, for beginning development of the twelve- story medical school, the most costly state building ever constructed in Louisi- ana, to be located immediately adiacent to the Confederate Memorial Hospital. Confederate, a 1,000 bed charity hospi- tal, was planned to be used as the medi- cal school's instruction center for clinical training. Also, in June of 1967, it was announced that the Veterans Administra- tion Hospital in Shreveport and all of its facilities would be available to the medi- cal school. Most of the classes for the first two years were planned to be held at the V.A. Hospital. Research labs, as well as classrooms and offices, were set up at the hospital. Besides the full-time depart- ment heads and instructors beginning to be appointed, in February, 1968, the appointment of 138 part-time faculty