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Golden Anniversary
Edward A. Holyoke
Medical schools, perhaps more than other institutions, seem to attract a succession of individuals of strong personality to their faculties. Some of these "characters" are remembered because of their warmth, generosity, and wisdom. Others are remembered for less endearing traits. Both types are commemorated in this book of the memoirs of Dr. Ed Holyoke. The author faithfully and very effectively served the Anatomy Department and the College through 50 years of dramatic changes and draws mainly from his own rich store of personal reminiscences to fashion this delightful book. At times only a thin disguise protects him from identification as the perpetrator of some of the more mischievous pranks.
Here is an account of student high spirits, practical jokes, and the antics of members of faculty, sometimes quaint, often amusing, occasionally outrageous. These memoirs paint vivid pictures of colorful individuals who walked the halls of a College of Medicine and University Hospital in days gone by, and whose ghosts, so it is reported, still haunt these same corridors.
The non-medical reader may ask, "Was medical school really like this?", or perhaps somewhat more ruefully, "Was the distinguished gentleman, who is now my trusted physician, once a student like those spotlighted in this text?" Alas, it may be so. However, in spite of the high spirits of student days, it remains true that the College of Medicine at the University of Nebraska has over the years more than adequately fulfilled its responsibility to train high-quality physicians for service to the community. Indeed, the boisterous good humor of college days almost certainly contributed to those qualities of character required in the physician. A physician's robust common sense, his sense of humor, his equanimity in facing stress, are amongst the ingredients necessary for his role as a comfortor of the sick and distressed, and as an adviser and supporter of those who face fear, loss or tragedy.
Books describing medical faculty and student life have always held a fascination, but to none more than the individuals who lived these times and experiences themselves. Undoubtedly, therefore, this book will create special interest and nostalgia in alumni of the College.
Richard Gordon pulled back the curtain on medical student education elsewhere, some years ago, with his "Doctor in the House" series of publications. Dr. Ed Holyoke has done a similar superb job in drawing back the curtain in Nebraska to reveal the effervescent sub-culture which makes up the life of medical students and faculty.
Alastair M. Connell, M.D.
University of Nebraska College of Medicine
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The First Hundred Years of the University of Nebraska College of Medicine
Centennial History Committee of the College of Medicine
The history of an institution like the University of Nebraska College of Medicine can be viewed from a number of perspectives. In the history of medicine, the University of Nebraska College of Medicine mirrors, with its own singular shape, the growth of medical science and the medical profession during a century of great change and discovery. In the perspective of the history of education in Nebraska, the college stands as one more expression of society's efforts to train individuals for one of its most vital and necessary professions, and to offer opportunities for education and training to its citizens. In the development of Omaha, of Douglas County, and of Nebraska, the college has evolved as an institution fostered by the society growing up on the American frontier, to meet increasing demands for medical expertise and training. What the University of Nebraska College of Medicine has become is the result of these and other powerful forces creating, by interaction and synthesis, a modern institution capable of meeting today's need for quality medical care.
Our purpose here is to trace the College of Medicine's first century of growth and change, to describe the alchemy that has transformed the original Omaha Medical College, a two-story building at 11th and Mason Streets, into the College of Medicine of today, an integral part of the multi-disciplinary University of Nebraska Medical Center in mid-town Omaha. We wish to celebrate those one hundred years of achievement and credit some of the many individuals who have contributed. Beyond these intentions, we have one more. By examining the last hundred years of the medical college, we may learn better how to guide its next hundred years of progress.
Frank J. Menolascino, M.D.
Chairman, Centennial History Committee -
The University of Nebraska College of Medicine, The Second Century: The First Twenty Years, 1980-2000
F Miles Skultety
In May 2000, Dean Armitage and Associate Dean Klintberg took me to lunch. Recognizing that there is no such thing as a free lunch, my defenses were up. When the shoe dropped, I was asked to bring the history of the College of Medicine up-to-date. The Dean was of the opinion that four significant events had occurred which warranted extending the written history after only twenty years. I was quite reluctant and lunch ended with my agreeing to "think about it". Finally in August I agreed, albeit still reluctantly.
As I pointed out to the Dean, because of my commitment to flower gardening I have devoted only part of the three winter months to the project each year. I have interviewed appropriate individuals who had the information I needed and/ or were involved in both sides of controversial issues. In addition, I reviewed the Medical Center's internal publications, news media, "The First Hundred Years of the University of Nebraska College of Medicine", "The University of Nebraska Hospital The First Seventy-Five Years 1917-1992", and any other historical sources I could find. The four significant events which prompted this update were: changes in the curriculum in the College of Medicine, the merger of the University and Clarkson Hospitals, the controversy regarding fetal cell research, and the controversy which resulted in the resignation of Chancellor Aschenbrener.
It will become obvious to the reader that this not a narrative history of the twenty years. I have covered the four" issues" and filled in necessary and appropriate details about the continuing development of the College of Medicine and the Medical Center. There is a fairly extensive reference list documenting my sources of written material. The specific content of significant interviews obviously cannot be documented. I have tried to provide details about departments, administration and physical changes which may be useful for future reference.
I hope that the reader will get some appreciation of the fairly significant changes that have occurred in the past twenty years and have added to the continuing growth of the College of Medicine over 120 years.
F. Miles Skultety, M.D.
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The University of Nebraska Hospital, The First Seventy-Five Years, 1917-1992
F Miles Skultety
This all began in the summer of 1991. I had been retired from the College of Medicine for four years when I received a copy of a memo to a fairly large group asking us to serve on a committee for the 75th Anniversary of the University of Nebraska Hospital and the University of Nebraska College of Nursing. Having elected to do so, I eventually ended up as chairman of the subcommittee on history. The other members of that committee were Alice Friedlander, retired Director of Volunteer Services; Kathy McConnell, President of the Hospital Auxiliary; Sharon Redding from the College of Nursing Alumni Association; Nancy Schneckloth, Assistant Professor College of Nursing and editor of the 70-year history of the College of Nursing; and Carol Wilson, retired Director of the Nursing Service. Among a number of other things, the committee's major contribution was a three-paneled display depicting the histories of the Hospital and the College of Nursing.
Early on, it became apparent that there was very little documentation of the hospital's history. Nancy Schneckloth had done the necessary research for the 70-year history of the College of Nursing and this only needed to be updated. My personal frustration which arose from attempts to provide a history of the hospital in the absence of adequate records or documentation led me to offer to research the necessary information and write a 75-year history.
I reviewed 'The First Hundred Years", the history of the College of Medicine, for information on the University Hospital and its reference list noted a number of pot entail documents which could be used. I reviewed every copy of the Medical Center's internal publication, 'The Pulse" later the "University of Nebraska Medical Center News" from the first publication in December 1953 through 1992 and, subsequently, 1993. At the time of my initial review, I made notes of what appeared to be potentially useful information. As might be expected, I subsequently had to return many times as needs arose which I had not initially anticipated.
Ms. Helen Yam, Archivist of the McGoogan Library, located a number of documents for me. I discovered the "Nurse Reporter" of the College of Nursing" and the "Communicator" of the hospital Nursing Service which provided information I had not found elsewhere. Ultimately, the recollection of individuals associated with the Medical Center now or in the past were a significant source of information.
This book is not meant to be a narrative history of the University Hospital, but it is a compilation of as much information as I could find in the three years I worked on it. I must point out that I have not labored diligently for 36 months but only for the four months of "winter" in each of the years 1991-92 through 1993-94 when I could not pursue my avocation of horticulture. A few areas are dealt with in great detail because of personal knowledge and interest. I hope I have provided two things, a brief historical record of the University of Nebraska Hospital from 1917-1992 and a reference source for those who wish to pursue any particular area in greater detail. Any documents which I have been able to collect are now located in the archives of the McGoogan Library at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska. I feel this may be my most significant accomplishment since they were dispersed throughout the Medical Center and ultimately would have been lost as many documents already have been. I hope the reader will find this book informative even if not absorbing.
F.M.S.
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