UAB Synopsis, Vol. 25, No. 13, June 19, 2006
The University of Alabama Medical Alumni Association has launched a $1.5 million fundraising campaign to endow The Tinsley R. Harrison Chair in Medicine. Leading the endowment steering committee is Medical Alumni Association President Albert J. Tully, Jr, MD. Cochairs are Dean Emeritus and Distinguished UAB Professor James A. Pittman, Jr, MD, and former UAB President Charles A. McCallum, Jr, DMD, MD.
Dr. Harrison’s words of dedication are an enduring beacon to the medical profession:
No greater opportunity, responsibility, or obligation can fall to the lot of a human being than to become a physician. In the care of suffering he needs technical skill, scientific knowledge, and human understanding. He who uses these with courage, with humility, and with wisdom will provide a unique service for his fellow man, and will build an enduring edifice of character within himself. The physician should ask of his destiny no more than this, he should be content with no less.
Respected and beloved as a teacher for nearly half a century, Dr. Harrison trained many of today’s prominent physicians. His name is synonymous with internal medicine because of his groundbreaking textbook. First published in 1950, Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine is in its 16th edition and is the number one selling internal medicine textbook worldwide.
Born in 1900 near Talladega, Alabama, Dr. Harrison returned to Alabama in 1950 to serve as chairman of medicine and acting dean of the then-struggling Medical College of Alabama. He laid the foundation for the excellent teaching, research, and patient care for which UAB is known today. On November 19, 1966, the Health Sciences Research Building was rededicated as the Lyons-Harrison Research Building, inspired by former Chair of Surgery Champ Lyons’ and Dr. Harrison’s emphasis on research.
“Harrison preached that any school that did not have a vigorous research program could not have up-to-date, questioning, intellectually alive, inspirational teaching or top-notch patient care,” says Dr. Pittman, who is penning a biography of Dr. Harrison. UAB now receives approximately $470 million annually in extramural funding for research and research training.
“This Chair will honor Dr. Harrison’s innumerable contributions to medicine and his influence on the lives of those of us who learned from him,” says Dr. Tully, one of the many students Dr. Harrison inspired. “He kept telling us that we could be the best in the world, and after a while we began believing it.”
Also serving on the endowment steering committee are J. Maxwell Austin, Jr, MD, Richard E. Brown, MD, Alan R. Dimick, MD, Sara C. Finley, MD, Wayne H. Finley, PhD, MD, Ronald E. Henderson, MD, Walter G. Pittman, MD, Richard Russell, MD, and Jack W. Trigg, Jr, MD.
For more information, contact School of Medicine Senior Director of Development Rebecca Gordon at rjgordon@uab.edu, 975.6149; or Medical Alumni Association Executive Secretary Elaine Chambless at eochambl@uab.edu, 934.4463.