Tours
Main Portrait Gallery
The Portrait Gallery honors those integral to the establishment and growth of UMMC, the state's only academic medical center. The vision of these leaders and their colleagues is why UMMC is now a premier medical institution offering excellent training for health care professionals, engagement in innovative research, and delivery of state-of-the-art medical care.
Select biographies are offered on this page. Select a name to jump to that individual's biography.
The Portrait Gallery's north-side wall displays the portraits of School of Medicine Deans:
- James E. Keeton, MD, Dean of the School of Medicine (2009 – 2015)
- Daniel W. Jones, MD, Dean of the School of Medicine (2003 – 2009)
- Wallace Conerly, MD, Dean of the School of Medicine (1994 – 2003)
- Norman Crooks Nelson, MD, Dean of the School of Medicine (1973 – 1994)
- Robert Estes Blount, MD, Dean of the School of Medicine (1971 – 1973)
- Robert Eldred Carter, MD, Dean of the School of Medicine (1967 – 1970)
- Robert Quarles Marston, MD, Dean of the School of Medicine (1961 – 1967)
- James B. Looper, PhD, MD, Dean of the School of Medicine (1944 – 1945)
- Billy Sylvester Guyton, MD, Dean of the School of Medicine (1936 – 1943)
- Joseph O. Crider, MD, Dean of the School of Medicine (1925 – 1931)
- Waller S. Leathers, MD, Dean of the School of Medicine (1910 – 1925)
A portrait of David S. Pankratz, MD, PhD, who served as Dean of the School of Medicine and Director of the University Medical Center from 1955 to 1961, is also displayed on the north-side wall of the Portrait Gallery.
The east-side wall features a portrait honoring Ing Kang Ho, PhD, who served as the inaugural Dean of the School of Graduate Studies in Health Sciences from 2001 to 2006.
Next to Dr. Ho is the portrait of Henry Boswell, MD. This portrait was presented to the Mississippi State Sanatorium in honor of Dr. Boswell "By His Many Friends" in 1952.
The Portrait Gallery features many inaugural and long-serving department chairs, as well. An alphabetical listing of all department chairs featured in the Portrait Gallery follows.
- Orlando Joseph Andy, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurosurgery (1960 – 1976)
- Thomas Joseph Brooks, Jr., PhD, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Preventive Medicine (1956 – 1981)
- Blair E. Batson, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Pediatrics (1955 – 1988)
- Warren Bell, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences (1954 – 1988)
- Robert O. Currier, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Medicine (1977 – 1990)
- Leonard W. Fabian, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Anesthesiology (1958 – 1971)
- Wilfred Reginald Gillis, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Family Medicine (1973 – 1987)
- Arthur C. Guyton, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Physiology and Biophysics (1948 – 1989)
- James D. Hardy, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Surgery (1955 – 1987)
- William Varner Hare, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Pathology (1949 – 1959)
- Harper K. Hellems, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Medicine (1965 – 1990)
- Ira Dwight Hogg, PhD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Anatomy (1948 – 1958)
- James L. Hughes, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Rehabilitation (1987 – 2002)
- Samuel B. Johnson, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Ophthalmology (1987 – 2000)
- Floy Jack Moore, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry (1956 – 1979)
- Marcus Eugene Morrison, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Bacteriology and Clinical Laboratory Diagnosis (1949 – 1957)
- William Michael Newton, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology (1955 – 1965)
- Charles Chandler Randall, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Microbiology (1957 – 1978)
- James O. Rice, PhD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Pharmacology (1942-1958)
- Robert Dye Sloan, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Radiology (1955 – 1980)
- John Robert Snavely, MD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Medicine (1956 – 1984)
- Louis Sulya, PhD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Biochemistry (1955 – 1977)
- William Lane Williams, PhD, Professor and Chairman, Department of Anatomy (1958 – 1980)
Select biographies
Professor and Chairman, Department of Orthopedic Surgery and Rehabilitation (1987 – 2002)
Dr. Hughes, the M. Beckett Howorth Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Rehabilitation and medical director of the University Rehabilitation Center, was named the first chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery in 1987. He served as chair until 2002. He also served as vice chief of staff at the University of Mississippi Medical Center from July 1983 to June 1984 and chief of staff from July 1984 to June 1985.
"Dr. Hughes, with his kind, compassionate nature, matched by his gifted technical ability, combined with excellent surgical judgment and integrity ... is the consummate model physician to which we all aspire as medical students," said Dr. Robert McGuire, professor and second chair of orthopaedic surgery at UMMC.
"His teaching and management style encouraged teamwork allowing all involved to share in the overall success of the endeavor. I consider it a privilege and an honor to have been mentored by him. This orthopedic chair in his name will serve as part of his legacy to the Medical Center and to the practice of our discipline in this state."
Professor and Chairman, Department of Physiology and Biophysics (1948 – 1989)
Arthur C. Guyton was born in Oxford, Miss., on Sept. 8, 1919, to the late Dr. and Mrs. Billy S. Guyton. His father - an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist - was also dean of the two-year medical school on the Oxford campus. His mother, Kate, had taught mathematics and physics as a missionary in China.
He graduated from University High School with the highest academic average in his class and entered Ole Miss in 1936, completed his undergraduate work in three years, and again graduated at the top of his class.
As a medical student at Harvard, he attracted the attention of a biochemistry professor with his idea of a way to measure and differentiate ions in solutions. The professor turned over a small lab to the promising young scientists who spent his spare time thereafter pursuing experiments which caught his imagination.
In the middle of his senior year in medical school, he and his future wife Ruth Weigle began a serious courtship which culminated in marriage on June 12, 1943. Ruth, whose father was dean of Yale University Divinity School, was a recent graduate of Wellesley College and taught at Pine Manor Junior College in Wellesley.
He began a surgical internship at Massachusetts General Hospital shortly after his marriage. His training was interrupted by a call to serve in the U.S. Navy at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda and later at Camp Detrick, Md., where his work earned him an Army Commendation Citation.
After World War II ended, he returned to Massachusetts General to complete his residency. Less than a year later, he was stricken with polio which would leave his right leg and shoulder paralyzed.
During a nine-month recovery at Warm Springs, Ga., he designed a special leg brace, a hoist for moving patients from bed to chair to bathtub, and a motorized wheelchair controlled by an electric "joy stick." For these devices he received a presidential citation.
In 1947, the Guytons moved back to Oxford where he taught pharmacology in the two-year medical school. In 1948, he was named chairman of the Department of Physiology and Biophysics.
His now famous and widely used textbook, "Textbook of Medical Physiology," had its beginnings in Oxford. He decided that the text the students were using was unsatisfactory, and he began reading in diverse areas of physiology. In summarizing his reading, he wrote handouts for each section of the course and realized he had the core of a complete textbook.
In the decades since, it has become the best-selling physiology text in the world and quite possibly the most widely used medical textbook of any kind.
Professor and Chairman, Department of Medicine (1965 – 1990)
Harper K. Hellems joined UMMC in 1965 as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Mississippi School of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief at the University Hospital in Jackson.
When arriving in Jackson, the department was small consisting of only 17 full-time faculty members. When he retired in 1990 the department had 76 full-time faculty and grant support for research had increased from approximately $375,000 to more than $2.5 million annually.
At the time of his retirement, the school's dean, Dr. A. Wallace Conerly, estimated that Harper had trained 75% of the all board certified internists in Mississippi.
Hellems carried out internship at the Montreal General Hospital. He spent five months as a Medical Officer in the Navy and then became a Research Assistant with the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.
He then carried out a research fellowship and internal medicine training at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the West Roxbury Veterans Hospital in Boston as part of the teaching programs at Harvard Medical School. While only at Harvard for only four years, Harper performed an astounding number of elegant studies in the area of cardiac physiology with Dr. Lewis Dexter (also a member of the American Clinical and Climatological Association).
They used arterial and venous catheterization to study pulmonary capillary pressure, establishing the value of the Swan-Ganz catheter a standard tool today to determine cardiovascular status and to guide therapy. Their landmark studies resulted in a large number of scientific publications in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, American Journal of Physiology, Journal of Applied Physiology, American Heart Journal and Circulation.
In 1950 Harper left Harvard to assume responsibilities as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Wayne State University College of Medicine in Detroit. He was promoted to Associate Professor at that institution in 1955. In 1960, Harper left Detroit to become Professor of Medicine and Director of Division of Cardiovascular Diseases at the New Jersey College of Medicine (formerly Seton Hall College of Medicine) in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Harper was a fellow and Master of the American College of Physicians and a fellow of the American College of Cardiology.
He was the author of 177 scientific and professional publications.
He served on the National Institutes of Health Cardiovascular Study Section 1962-6 and the Fogarty International Fellowship Review Committee for the Fogarty International Center, 1968-72.
He received the Theodore and Susan Cummings Award of the American College of Cardiology, 1964 and 1967 and the Founders Medal of the Southern Society of Clinical Investigation in 1989.
He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the American Physiological Society, the Association of University Cardiologists and in 1968 was elected to membership in the American Clinical and Climatological Association.
See also Harper Keith Hellems (1920-1999) on Find a Grave Memorial.
Professor and Chairman, Department of Pediatrics (1955 – 1988)
Dr. Blair E. Batson was the first chairman of pediatrics at UMMC.
"Dr. Batson's importance to the health of children in the state cannot be underestimated," said Dr. LouAnn Woodward, UMMC vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. "He truly is the father of organized pediatrics in Mississippi and the lives of countless children in our state have been touched through his work. What a wonderful legacy."
"He was a living archive of pediatric diseases and experiences," said his successor as chair, Dr. Owen B. Evans. "And he was a role model for me in how to be a gentleman."
Born Oct. 24, 1920, Batson grew up in Pearl River County in the sawmill town of Orvisburg, where his grandfather, Ran Batson, owned the mill and his grandmother, Mary Bryan, was principal of the three-room, eight-grade school. For three years of his childhood, at the start of the Great Depression, Batson's family lived in West Point, Mississippi, where the local librarian, Miss Lucy Heard, cultivated his life-long love of books and learning.
He earned a B.A. and M.D. from Vanderbilt University and completed a residency in pediatrics at Vanderbilt. While an undergraduate at Vanderbilt, he was president of the student council and of his fraternity, Sigma Chi. He served as chief resident at Vanderbilt from 1949-50 and had a faculty appointment there from 1949-1952.
He completed a one-year residency at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and was on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine from 1952-1955. He also held a master of public health degree from Johns Hopkins University.
He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1946-1948 in Giessen, Germany, as ward officer for contagious diseases and pediatrics for the 388th Station Hospital.
At 34, he was named chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at UMMC just two months after the Medical Center opened its doors to patients in 1955. He officially retired in 1989 although he still taught for years afterward. During his long career, he taught more than 3,500 medical students and 240 pediatric residents. Among those residents was the late Dr. Aaron Shirley, who, under Batson's leadership, in 1965 became the first African-American learner in any program at UMMC.
Dr. Joe Donaldson, a former member of the pediatrics faculty, said Batson was "superbly trained" and read all the time. "He had seen virtually every interesting pediatric case in Mississippi since 1955." Another faculty member Dr. Will Sorey, said he was "a wonderful teacher." He "knew infectious diseases not from lab reports that we rely on now, but from clinical presentation."
Batson was honored often for his contributions to the health of children in Mississippi. He was recipient of the 2000 Humanitarian of the Year tribute from the Epilepsy Foundation of Mississippi. In 1996, he was Vanderbilt's Distinguished School of Medicine Alumnus of the Year. In 1995, he was inducted into the University of Mississippi Alumni Hall of Fame. He received awards for outstanding service from the March of Dimes, the National Easter Seal Society, the American Academy of Pediatrics, District VII, and an award for leadership and devotion to child health care from the Mississippi Academy of Pediatrics.
He was an examiner for the American Board of Pediatrics from 1963 until 1990, a member of the executive board of the American Academy of Pediatrics from 1974 to 1980, and president of the pediatric section of the Southern Medical Association.
In 1997, the new children's hospital was named the Blair E. Batson Hospital for Children in recognition of Batson's lifetime contributions to the health of children in Mississippi. A new wing of the hospital is currently under construction.
He was married twice, first to Dr. Margaret Batson, a distinguished pediatrician in her own right and member of the original pediatric faculty, and then to Blanche Batson, a well-known artist, both deceased.
See also the obituary for Dr. Blair E. Batson.
Professor and Chairman, Department of Ophthalmology (1987 – 2000)
Samuel B. Johnson, MD, first chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, drowned in a rafting accident on the Green River in Utah on the afternoon of May 12, 2000, at age 74 years.
A native of Canyon, Tex, Dr Johnson earned his bachelor of science degree in chemistry at West Texas State College in Canyon, and he acquired his MD at Tulane University in New Orleans, La. He interned at Knoxville General Hospital in Tennessee, and then took his residency in ophthalmology at Tulane University in the New Orleans Eyes, Ears, Nose, and Throat Hospital. During the Korean War, he was chief of the eyes, ears, nose, and throat service at the US Army Hospital in Fort Sills, Oklahoma, and at the US Navy Hospital in Quantico, Va.
Dr Johnson began practicing ophthalmology in Jackson, Miss, in 1953. When the University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMC) opened in 1955, he joined the faculty as chief of the Division of Ophthalmology in the Department of Surgery, and chief of the hospital's ophthalmology service. He became chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology in 1987 when the division was elevated to department status, and remained chairman until he stepped down in February 2000. He then continued to teach and practice medicine at UMC.
Dr Johnson served as chairman of the mid-South section of the Association of Research and Vision in Ophthalmology. He served as president of the International Association of Secretaries of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngological Societies; the Mississippi Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Association; the James H. Allen Residents' Society; and the Louisiana/Mississippi Ophthalmological and Otolaryngological Society.
He served as a consultant to many organizations, including the Research and Development Center of the National Industries for the Blind, the Federal Aviation Administration Southeastern Area, and the Medical Advisory Board of the Eye Bank Association of America.
Dr Johnson was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, the Academy of Ophthalmology, and the Law Science Academy of America. He was the author of many professional papers and contributed a chapter on ophthalmic emergencies to Rhoads Textbook of Surgery, 5th Edition.
In 1998, Dr Johnson, who was medical director of the Mississippi Lions Eye Bank, was recognized with the Lions Club International Foundation's Melvin Johns Fellowship Award. The award is given to individuals who are committed to the organization's humanitarian objectives.
Dr Sam (as he was fondly called) was a true Southern gentleman. He was an excellent politician and a great speaker. He liked to teach, regardless of whether his audience was composed of medical students, residents, or laypeople. He loved being involved in the problem-solving process for previous residents and ophthalmological colleagues, helping both with professional and personal problems. Dr Sam would stand up for important political issues supported by the state ophthalmological community during legislative sessions. Within his department, he was unfailingly supportive of his staff's career development.
All in all, Dr Sam single-handedly established an outstanding ophthalmological teaching program in the state of Mississippi. He constantly strived to make sure that the program progressed in the way that it should. He was not only a teacher, an ophthalmologist, and an administrator, but most importantly, he was a warm human being. He will be greatly missed by his students, his former residents, the state and national ophthalmological community, and his patients.
See also the JAMA Ophthalmology obituary for Samuel B. Johnson, MD (1925-2000) by Ching J. Chen, MD from March 2001.
Professor and Chairman, Department of Surgery (1955 – 1987)
Robert O. Currier, MD
Professor and Chairman, Department of Medicine (1977 – 1990)
The first neurologist hired at UMMC was Dr. William Gillen, who arrived in 1958 and left in early 1959. Dr. Richard Naef went into private practice in Jackson in July 1959 and became a visiting neurologist at the University Medical Center at the same time.
The first permanent faculty member in neurology was Dr. Robert Currier (1961); the second was Dr. Armin Haerer (1965). Since then there has been a steady, and at times rapid, growth in the size of the faculty.
Neurology became a division of the Department of Medicine at UMMC in 1961.
A neurologist began to work at the VA Medical Center shortly thereafter on a part-time basis, and neurologists were part of the Medicine Service at the VA Medical Center and associated with UMMC until many years later. Neurology became a separate department at UMMC in 1977 and a separate clinical service at the VA Medical Center in 1978.
Neurology patients were separated out of Medicine when Neurology became a department at UMMC and a separate service at the VA. Patients at the Medical Center were housed on various floors, 5West and 7West being the principal locations, as well as the private patient floors. At the VA, neurology was housed on 4A, then went to the third floor and eventually was moved to 2L in 1992 when the new clinical addition opened.
The Department of Neurology offices moved from the medical school building at the UMMC into what is now called the James D. Hardy Clinical Sciences Building when it opened in 1977.
Dr. Currier served as the first chairman until 1990, when Dr. James Corbett took over. Dr. Shri Mishra became chief of the neurology service at the VA in 1978 and remained until 1987. He was replaced by Dr. Haerer in 1989 who is retired. Dr. Eric Undesser served as VA chief of neurology from 1995-2020.
Postgraduate training was part of the neurology department's mission from the very beginning. The first neurology resident graduated in 1964. There have been numerous neurology residents over the years. Their training years and later practice locations are listed in the appendix. Many neurophysiology fellows were trained as well; they are also listed in the appendix. Dr. Desaiah trained a number of research fellows in neuropharmacology. There were cross-appointments between neurology and other services over the years, including pathology, ophthalmology, otology, pediatrics, medicine, neurosurgery and radiology.
Special units set up at the Medical Center in the Department of Neurology have included Stroke Centers; the first one was a precursor of modern stroke units, set up in the late 1960s and the second one in the early 1990s. A comprehensive epilepsy center was established in 1995 under the direction of Dr. Mech Sundaram. It is a member of the National Association of Epilepsy Centers.
Outreach activities of the department from 1970-85 included a number of in-state clinics for persons with neurologic disorders, mainly epileptics, who were medically indigent. Clinics at one of the state charity hospitals in Vicksburg were held for a number of years. Close association with the VA Medical Center has been continuous since 1970. Special clinics included those for muscular dystrophy (MDA clinic), multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, neuromuscular disorders, neurogenetics and neuro-ophthalmology.
Special interests of the neurology faculty and staff have included cerebrovascular disease, neurogenetics, cerebellar degeneration, cerebrospinal fluid, demyelinating disease, epilepsy, neuromuscular disorders, neuro-epidemiology, neuro-ophthalmology, neuro-oncology, vestibular disorders, neurobehavioral and cognitive disorders, and neurotoxicology.
Excerpt: About the UMMC Department of Neurology
Wilfred Reginald Gillis, MD
Professor and Chairman, Department of Family Medicine (1973 – 1987)
Dr. Wilfred Reginald “Bunny” Gillis, UMMC professor emeritus of family medicine and founding chairman of the department, died April 1. He was 82.
A native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Gillis received his M.D. from Dalhousie University and joined a group practice in New Brunswick Canada, where he remained in private practice until 1970.
In 1971, Gillis became director of family medicine elective programs for Dalhousie University and was also in charge of research programs for the Department of Family Medicine. In 1972, he was recruited to Mississippi and in 1973 became chair of the Department of Family Medicine at UMMC.
Gillis was instrumental in establishing the department as a university-based program with community experiences for residents and medical students, including community family medicine clinics and training centers. Much of the framework that he implemented exists today in the department’s operations. He retired as chair of family medicine in 1987.
See also In memoriam: Dr. Wilfred "Bunny" Gillis.
Thomas Joseph Brooks, Jr., PhD, MD
Professor and Chairman, Department of Preventive Medicine (1956 – 1981)
Thomas Joseph Brooks, 90, of Jackson died Sunday, July 23, 2006, at Baptist Medical Center in Jackson. Visitation is 10 a.m. Wednesday, July 26, until the time of services at 1. 11 a.m. at Fondren Presbyterian Church in Jackson.
A renowned epidemiologist and professor of preventive medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical School for more than 30 years, Dr. Brooks was the last surviving member of the original faculty that came from the Oxford campus of the medical school and opened the University Medical Center that transformed Jackson in 1955. A true Renaissance man, Dr. Brooks excelled at a wide range of interests in addition to medicine, and was an inspiring example of the long, active life that a curious mind and a dedication to education can produce. He was born May 23, 1916, in Starkville and grew up in Tallahassee, Fla.
His academic pursuits earned him four university degrees, including a Ph.D. in tropical and parasitic diseases from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health (1942) and an M.D. from the Bowman Gray School of Medicine at Wake Forest University (1945). He served as a medical officer in the Navy in World War II and again in the Korean War. While the new medical facility in Jackson was being constructed, he was "loaned" to Florida State University to set up a university hospital, where he served as Chief Physician and was team doctor for the fledgling Seminoles football team.
He remained there four years before returning to Jackson as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine in the new medical school. He served in that position for more than 33 years and also as the first Assistant Dean of the school for the first 19 years. Dr. Brooks loved to travel and visited most of the countries in the world, often taking his family with him for months or a year at a time. In 1966, the government of India requested the United Nations to assemble a small group of experts to evaluate medical education there.
Five people were chosen, and Dr. Brooks was the sole representative of the United States. He also held visiting professorships on the medical faculties of The University of Costa Rica; Tokyo University, Kyoto University and Keio University in Japan; and Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. He lectured widely and held consulting appointments and fellowships at universities in New York City; New Delhi and Hyderabad, India; Puerto Rico; Guatemala; Haiti; Thailand; Colombia; and Singapore.
Dr. Brooks was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Health (England), Omicron Delta Kappa and Sigma Xi honor societies, and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship (Nigeria), the Alan Gregg Fellowship in Medical Education (Japan, Southeast Asia), and a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of North Carolina. He held elective and appointive offices in The Association of American Colleges and The American Public Health Association, and was a Special Consultant to the Governor's Select Committee on Health. He was a Diplomate of The American Board of Medical Microbiology, and a member of its Board of Examiners. He authored more than 30 scientific papers, a textbook, "Essentials of Medical Parasitology," and for 10 years was a contributing editor and member of the Editorial Board of "The Control of Communicable Diseases in Man," published by the American Public Health Association. He was listed in Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Who's Who in Medicine and Health, Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the World and many other biographical listings.
Dr. Brooks taught himself many hobbies and always excelled at them. He was a gifted woodworker and was a member of the Mississippi Woodturners Association and the Magnolia Woodturners Association. He held an amateur radio license from 1948 until his death and was Past President of the Jackson Amateur Radio Society. Over the years, he designed and built at least nine radio transmitters with which he made contacts in more than 200 countries.
From the age of 10, he was a serious photographer and was a Past President of the Jackson Photographic Society. Using his own darkroom, he produced monochrome prints which were accepted for exhibition in international competition. In 1978, he was accorded the honor of a One Man Show in the Atrium Gallery of the Mississippi Museum of Art. Other shows followed, the last one being in the Samuel Marshall Gore Gallery in Mississippi College in 2002, a collection he later donated to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. He was active as a member of Fondren Presbyterian Church, where he taught Sunday School and served as an Elder and a Deacon.
Adventurous, intelligent, creative and kind, Dr. Brooks was an inspiration to all who knew him and the embodiment of a life lived well. Physicians across Mississippi and the nation have credited him with being the guiding force that directed them to their life's work as public health officers. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, the former Mary Alice Pollard of Yazoo City; four children: Tom Brooks and his wife, Robin, of Harrisville, Dr. Michael Brooks and his wife Margaret, of Laurel, Browning Brooks and her husband, Bill Edmonds, of Tallahassee, Anne Brooks and her husband, Dr. Ronnie Kent, of Hattiesburg; seven grandchildren and six great grandchildren.
Excerpts from Hattiesburg American Newspaper.
Professor and Chairman, Department of Neurosurgery (1960 – 1976)
Orlando Joseph Andy (January 21, 1920 - November 6, 1997) was an American neurosurgeon with a special interest in behavioral, movement, seizure and chronic pain disorders. He was a pioneer in developing electrode based deep brain stimulation therapies. Neurosurgery at the University of Mississippi was established and headed by Dr. Andy from 1955 to 1979. One hundred twenty-eight articles are currently listed under him on NCBI/PubMed.
When the University of Mississippi Medical Center opened its doors in 1955, Dr. Orlando J. Andy headed the Department of Neurosurgery. In 1958, a residency in clinical neurosurgery was developed with the assistance of Dr. James Brown, associate dean for student programs, and Dr. Charles Neil, clinical professor of neurosurgery. With the assistance of Dr. Ralph McChin, experimental psychologist, a research laboratory, was developed in 1959.
Several years later, a clinical laboratory of diagnostic psychology and electroencephalography was developed with the assistance of Dr. Marion Jurko, electroencephalographer and clinical psychologist. During Dr. Andy's tenure from 1955-79, the patients from Mississippi became the backbone of the neurosurgery training program at UMMC and the G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Centers.
In 1961, a program was developed in general neurosurgery that met board requirements. Subsequently, neurosurgeons interested in specialized fields, representing advanced treatments and research, were added to the faculty. Clinical research done at this time involved behavioral and electrographic studies performed on all patients who had the following procedures: thalamotomy for motor, pain and behavior disorders; amygdalotomy for intractable complex partial seizures; thalamic stimulation electrode implant for pain and motor disorders; and cortical recording and mapping in brain tumor and seizure problems.
The laboratory animal research was a postdoctoral training program in the anatomy and physiology of behavior, which was developed in conjunction with the University of Mississippi's Department of Psychology in Oxford. Research centered on the anatomy and electrophysiology of behavior in rats, cats and monkeys. Behavioral changes in conditioned and non-conditioned freely moving subjects were studied in relation to electrical stimulation and after-discharges of limbic and cortical structures. Other studies related the limbic discharge to brainstem stimulation effects, propagation patterns and blood pressure changes. Until his retirement in 1997, Dr. Dudley Peeler directed an extensive research effort focusing on memory and emotion-related behaviors of recombinant inbred mouse strains.
-Sourced from UMMC's Department of Neurosurgery webpage About Us, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (2015, October 23) "Orlando Andy, MD interviewed by A. Earl Walker, MD"[YouTube], and various sources.
Leonard W. Fabian, MD
Professor and Chairman, Department of Anesthesiology (1958 – 1971)
Leo Fabian played a role in many anesthesia firsts: the first halothane anesthetics in the United States, the first American electrical anesthetic, the first lung allotransplant, and the first heart xenotransplant. As was common for men of his generation, Fabian’s first taste of medicine came during World War II, as a pharmacist’s mate aboard the U.S.S. Bountiful. Afterward, he pursued his medical education before joining Dr. C. Ronald Stephen and the anesthesiology department at Duke. There he helped to create one of the first inhalers for halothane, the Fabian Newton Stephen (F-N-S) Fluothane Vaporizer. Fabian left Duke for the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he consistently worked with the chair of surgery, Dr. James Hardy. Together they performed the first American electrical anesthetic, the first lung allotransplant, and the first heart xenotransplant. By the end of his time at Mississippi, Fabian and Hardy had several philosophical disagreements, and Fabian ultimately left for Washington University in St. Louis, where he rejoined Dr. Stephen. He served as Stephen’s right-hand man and would oversee the department when Stephen was away. Fabian spent the final years of his career as chair of the department before his own health forced him to step down.
Professor and Chairman, Department of Biochemistry (1955 – 1977)
"Dr. Louis Sulya was our biochemistry instructor when the then Mississippi Medical School was a two-year school at Ole Miss in Oxford. He was an excellent teacher, but he liked to make it hard for the med students. He would write long chemical formulas on the blackboard and stand in front of his writing and then erase them very quickly. Then he would laugh. He got a “kick” out of intimidating the medical students who had to get a good grade. Eventually, he would clarify the formula. We also had to test our 24-hour urine output, and the med students had to carry a gallon jug with them wherever they went. We had one female med student and she tied a funnel to hers. We and all the students got a laugh when they saw us with our jugs. After two years at the Ole Miss campus, many of our class entered our junior year at the new medical school in Jackson and were the first graduating class, in 1957."
- by Dr. Fred S. Evans of Pensacola, Florida, Class of 1957, in Mississippi Medicine, Winter 2017, 8(1).
William Varner Hare, MD
Professor and Chairman, Department of Pathology (1949 – 1959)
"Today’s Department of Pathology is vastly different from its humble beginnings at the newly opened Jackson campus of our Medical Center in 1955. Originally, the second floor was the hub of medical activity. The North Wing contained the surgical suites, anesthesiology and surgical pathology. Dr. William Hare was the Chairman of Pathology and Dr. James Hardy, the chair of Surgery made an excellent working pair. Runners would walk surgical specimens across the hall to surgical path and the surgeons could easily walk next door to confer with a pathologist. This was a wonderful, logical layout that served us for many years. Change was inevitable though, as soon surgery needed more space and had difficulty keeping up with rapidly expanding government guidelines for operating rooms. With the competition of the Critical Care Hospital in the early 1980’s, both surgery and anesthesiology moved to this new building. Alas, pathology was left behind, but we did hope to acquire some of the newly vacated space – but that was not to be."
- by Dr. Robert E. Lewis, Emeritus Professor, Department of Pathology
Dr. Bowell was a member of the University of Mississippi faculty for many years and was instrumental in obtaining the 4-year medical school at University Hospital.
Dr. Boswell appeared before the Mississippi Legislature in 1916 to propose a modern sanatorium. Although the Sanatorium closed in 1976, the facility became a care center for patients with developmental disabilities and is now called the Boswell Regional Center. Today, the BRC grounds in Magee, Mississippi, are still home to many of the original Sanatorium structures, including biographical exhibits and artifacts displayed at the Mississippi State Sanatorium Museum.
See the personal report of Dr. Boswell's passing by Clyde A. Watkins in CHEST Journal (February 1959).