Interview with George T. Harrell, October 11, 1984

Interview Summary

University of Florida Medical Center and Hershey Medical Center; Harrell Family history; educational background; graduating from Duke University; reason for his early interest in medicine; growing up in Ashville-- North Carolina and knowing the author-- Thomas Wolfe; medical school at Duke and interest in pathology and internal medicine; opposition by faculty to interns marrying; Harrell's inclination for teaching; appointment as head of the pathology department at City Memorial Hospital in Winston-Salem; organizing clinical pathological conferences in Winston-Salem for local physicians; Duke's inability to train medical students for community practice; Harrell's experiences as a resident to community practice; accepting position at Winston-Salem in 1941; recruitment of Tinsley Harrison as department head; "the Young Turks" (the American Society for Clinical Investigation); effect of World War II on class sizes in medicine; Harrell's research into spotted fever and being at odds with the Public Health Service over treatment; support for a medical school in Florida; Harrell's recruitment by Florida in 1954 as Dean of the Medical School; decision to locate the medical school in Gainesville and opposition from the University of Miami; problems with the initial construction company; designing and planning the physical plant and mistakes that were made; writing an architectural guide for the design of a medical sciences building that sold over 5 000 copies; influence of Florida medical school's design on the University of Kentucky Medical Center; designing a multi-disciplinary laboratory; designing a place for student study cubicles and an auditorium; creating a College of Health-Related Services; opposition to a program in primary care at Florida by the Electra County Medical Society; Harrell's relationship with the president of the University of Florida; support for a teaching hospital as well as a medical school; faculty recruitment beginning with Markle scholars (Frank Putnam-- Jim Wilson-- Manny Sutter-- Arthur Otis-- Josh Edwards-- Tom Marin-- Ed Woodward-- Sam Martin); working relationships between the different department chairmen; reason for Harrell's decision to leave Gainesville; recruitment of Harry Prestowsky; using the Island Hotel restaurant at Cedar Key-- Florida as a recruiting tool; in-state recruiting of students; minority student recruiting; relationship between the Medical School and the University community; town-gown relationship in Gainesville; instituting a practice plan at the University of Florida; effect of not acquiring a national marine biology lab and national primate lab at Gainesville on the Medical School; things Harrell would do differently at Gainesville; history of the Hershey Foundation and reasons for establishing a Medical Center in Hershey; Milton Hershey Orphan School; Judge Roy Wilkinson; support by local physicians for the Medical Center in Hershey; recruiting Thomas Layman as chair; establishing family medicine at Hershey; pressure from the Foundation for the Medical Center to accept more community patients and Harrell's resistance; recruiting a minister to head the humanities department at the Medical School; the Society of Health and Human Values; Richard Noya; success of the large animal operating room; Harrell's relationship with John W. Oswald-- president of Penn State University; Hill-Burton Foundation and four-person hospital units; achievements and disappointments at Hershey.

Interview Keyword

Health Services Medicine Physicians

Interview LC Subject

Academic medical centers Harrell, George T. (George Thomas), 1908- Harrell, George T. (George Thomas), 1908- --Interviews

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