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Series Of Dedications To Honor
Donors, Faculty At Health Center
Some outstanding Health Center benefactors, notable faculty, and historical figures will be celebrated in a series of dedications and events starting in mid-May and running through the start of next academic year.
The Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center will be dedicated in May; former medical dean Dr. Robert Massey will have the Blue Auditorium named after him; the late Dr. James Foster, former director of surgical education, will have an academic classroom named after him; and the late Dr. John Nalbandian, a former professor of periodontology, will have a plaque unveiled in his honor.
"These special people have added so much to the success of this institution, that these namings are but a small token of their contributions," says development officer Sally Weisman. "Each of these people have given of themselves in their own way: both professionally, and personally through philanthropic support."
Pat and Jim Calhoun have been benefactors of the cardiology program at the Health Center since 1998, and the program is named after them: the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center. Including their personal commitments and the coach's annual golf tournament, the Calhouns have raised more than $1 million to date for cardiovascular research at the Health Center.
One of the Health Center's Signature Programs, cardiology is a multidisciplinary strategic initiative linking research, teaching, and clinical care under one comprehensive umbrella. Calhoun has agreed to serve as a charter member of the newly formed program's Leadership Advisory Council. In this capacity, he has offered to use his celebrity status pro bono to help bring awareness and attention to cardiovascular disease and the research and clinical care at the Health Center.
"Pat and Jim Calhoun have made a very personal commitment to strengthen cardiology research at the Health Center," says Dr. Peter Deckers, executive vice president for health affairs and dean of the medical school. "We are deeply grateful to both of these wonderful individuals and are honored to name our cardiology program after them, in recognition of their generosity, leadership, and friendship."
Massey was dean from 1971 to 1985. Throughout his tenure, he provided outstanding academic leadership to the faculty and served as a mentor and educator to both medical and dental students. He served as editor of Connecticut Medicine and was editor of the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences.
Massey had a long-standing personal interest in the history of medicine and taught it in the medical school as an elective. The Health Center's history society, which holds monthly lectures during the academic year, bears the name, the Robert U. Massey History of Medicine Society.
The auditorium to be named for Massey, currently known as the Blue Auditorium, is used for academic lectures and presentations. Its counterpart, formerly known as the Green Auditorium, was dedicated the Patterson Auditorium in 2002, in honor of Dr. John Patterson, the Health Center's first executive director and the second dean of the School of Medicine.
Foster, for whom Classroom H will be renamed, was widely admired as a brilliant teacher, an artist, a friend, and a gentleman who combined the skills of a surgeon with the compassion of a humanist. He died in 2003. He was director of surgical education at the Health Center from 1978 until he retired in 1993. He was also the first full-time director of surgery at Hartford Hospital, and was a founder of the hospital's kidney transplant program.
In the 1970's he was at the forefront of treating liver disease, wrote more than 100 articles, and lectured widely around the country on the subject. In the 1990's he collaborated on changes in the clinical curriculum at the medical school that helped guide students to a less compartmentalized, more compassionate approach to patient care.
The room will be known as the James H. Foster, M.D. Memorial Learning Center and will continue to be used as academic classroom space.
The Board of Trustees approved the Calhoun, Massey, and Foster namings at its March 23 meeting.
Nalbandian, a retired professor of periodontology, died in 2002. He joined the Health Center faculty in 1969 from the Harvard dental school, where he was a fellow and a faculty member. He retired from the Health Center in 1997, and was highly regarded by faculty and students alike.
The plaque in his honor will be unveiled at the Health Center on the day of Commencement, May 16.
