Southwestern Medical College
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This school was established on May 5, 1943, by Southwestern Medical Foundation to serve Dallas and North Texas. The foundation, organized in 1939 by Dr. Edward H. Cary, E. R. Brown, Karl Hoblitzelle, and Dr. Hall Shannon, promoted quality medical education in Dallas that met the standards of the nationally-accepted Flexner Report. Dr. Cary, the driving force behind the school and foundation, served as president of the foundation until his death in 1953. Classes for 200 students began on July 1, 1943, and within six months the school was accredited with a top rating by the American Medical Association. Classes were held here in pre-fabricated military buildings near Parkland Hospital, its main teaching hospital partner. During World War II, the school became the army specialized training unit for the Eighth Service Command of the United States Army. Third- and fourth-year students were classified as army soldiers and many worked as military medical officers. In 1949, Southwestern became affiliated with the University of Texas (UT), introducing the school to additional resources. Beginning in 1968, dean Dr. Charles C. Sprague guided a period of growth fueled by funding from the UT system, the State of Texas, and Southwestern Medical Foundation donors to double the size of the campus and number of students, as well as enlarge the center’s educational, clinical, and research abilities. The important research work of the school, now named UT Southwestern Medical Center, has been honored with five faculty awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine between 1985 and 2013, along with one awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1988. (2017)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1943 amid the pressures of World War II, Southwestern Medical College set out to give Dallas and North Texas a medical school that met the rigorous national standards born of the Flexner Report. Classes for its first 200 students met in prefabricated military buildings beside Parkland Hospital, and during the war the school doubled as an Army specialized training unit whose students served as military medical officers. Affiliation with the University of Texas in 1949 and a growth surge beginning in 1968 built it into today's UT Southwestern Medical Center, home to multiple Nobel laureates.
Why it matters
It shows how a wartime-era school built in temporary barracks grew into one of the nation's premier centers of medical research and training.
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Related people
- · Edward H. Cary
- · Karl Hoblitzelle
- · Charles C. Sprague
Related events
- · World War II
Themes & tags
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