70 Years And Growing
1955: It was a momentous year for beginnings and endings for medicine and science.
In April, the Salk polio vaccine was declared safe and effective, an amazing breakthrough that marked the beginning of the end of a horrific epidemic. Less than a week later, the life of Albert Einstein came to an end, and the world mourned the loss of its most famous scientist.
On this day, October 24, 1955, the University of Mississippi Medical Center officially had its grand opening. Today, we celebrate 70 years.
Although the Medical Center began operating on July 1, 1955, the October observance was an occasion to formally introduce the state to its new medical school and teaching hospital.
The former two-year medical school, located on the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, had expanded to four years and transferred to the state capital. Medical students no longer had to leave Mississippi to get their MD. Their school was now part of a complex that included the hospital, research labs and administrative space.
The original 1955 departments in the School of Medicine – then the only school on campus – were anatomy, bacteriology and clinical laboratory diagnosis, medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, pathology, pediatrics, pharmacology, physiological chemistry, physiology and biophysics, preventive medicine, psychiatry, radiology and surgery. Nursing was also a department within the school, but nursing students would not transfer from Oxford to Jackson until July 1956.
A few Medical Center comparison facts, then and now:
Number of schools – 1955: one; 2025: six
Learner enrollment – 1955: 140 (first semester, according to the chancellor's annual report to the IHL; 164 by the second semester); 2025: 3,198 (Fall 2025, as of Oct. 10), including residents and fellows and 656 students in the School of Medicine alone
Number of faculty members – 1955: 35 (approx.); 2025: 1,143
Hospital admissions – 1955: 1,330 private patients, 4,214 service patients; 2025: 34,643
Number of patients beds – 1955: 121 (243 in use by June 30, 1956); 2025: 1,061 (licensed beds statewide, including 288 critical care)
Number of hospitals – 1955: one; 2025: four (with University Hospital in Jackson made up of several specialized towers)
As I said earlier, we have come a LONG way. The progress and accomplishments this institution has delivered over these past 70 years has been remarkable and only possible because people – legislators, governors, lieutenant governors, chancellors, IHL trustees, donors, community supporters, employees, students and so many others – believed in the mission and the promise of the state’s only academic medical center.
We've developed some of the world’s most respected research programs. We've provided compassionate and, in many cases, life-saving medical care to countless Mississippians.
I joined the medical center in 1987 as a student but actually worked here a little bit before that as a research technician in the Department of Microbiology. It stuns me to realize I have been around for almost 40 of the 70 years! (I had to get out a calculator to check my math.) The physical plant as I knew it in the late 1980s compared to today is unrecognizable. The size and scope of the education, research and clinical programs have simply exploded over these years. Just looking at the comparison of lab tests then to now is shocking - 1955: 140,690; 2025: More than 10 million!
There is so much to be proud of. And while we often focus on the achievements and the celebrations, it’s important to realize that the road was not always smooth. Even when considering work as important as the surgeries Dr. James Hardy did in the early 1960s in the field of organ transplantation, there were naysayers. As he was literally performing groundbreaking work, some members of the medical profession, as well as others, felt his work was questionable and ill-advised.
But this came with the territory. In 1955, the Medical Center was new and youthful – and this was reflected in the makeup of our founding chairs, who were often young, forward-thinking faculty who came from long-established institutions into leadership roles. They took risks as they helped build a new beginning for health care and education in Mississippi.
So many bold and talented people were responsible for making a difference in the lives of Mississippians and the lives of people well beyond our state – leaders like Billy Guyton, David Pankratz, Norman Nelson, Christine Oglevee and others; World-renowned innovators like Hardy, Arthur Guyton, Julius Cruse, John Bower and others; Barrier breakers like Aaron Shirley, Helen Barnes and more.
Their spirit is in us, this willingness to take on the challenges of budgets, health crises and more; To give birth to something new and valuable and healing; To, as much as possible, put an end to disease and suffering, as UMMC continues to grow and serve the patients of Mississippi in ways no one else can.
So, please join me in celebrating this thrilling milestone on our journey to A Healthier Mississippi.
