Table of Contents
Endowed Chair Named for Former President
at Retirement Reception
M. David Low, M.D., Ph.D., left, third
president of the UT Health
Science Center
at Houston, holds a scale model of a chair
presented to
him by UT School of Public
Health at Houston Executive Dean Guy
Parcel, Ph.D. The full-size chair, a gift from
Low's SPH colleagues, was
shipped to his
home in Canada in recognition of the
endowed chair
named for him at the SPH.
Photos by Alejandro DeAlvarado
Leadership, achievement and friendship were recurring themes during a reception celebrating The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston career of former president M. David Low, M.D., Ph.D.
Among the more than 100 guests were many of Houston’s medical and community leaders, including Denton Cooley, M.D., Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Wilhelmina Robertson Smith, Beth and Corby Robertson, Margaret Alkek and Margaret Williams.
President James T. Willerson, M.D., thanked Low for “leading us through times of change and great accomplishment” during his presidency from 1989 to 2000 and announced the establishment of the M. David Low Chair in Public Health.
Low, who retired and moved to British Columbia in July after four years as a professor and director of the UT School of Public Health at Houston Center for Society and Population Health, was honored June 30 by faculty, staff and friends.
“We are grateful beyond words,” Low said on behalf of his wife, Barbara, and their daughter, Kelsey. “Your love and your friendship— those things will remain with us forever as priceless gifts.”
School of Public Health Executive Dean Guy Parcel, Ph.D., presented Low with a scale model of a full-size wooden chair that was given to him by the SPH faculty, joking at first that the scaled down version was all that the recent institutional budget-tightening would permit.
The endowed chair, which will be held by the SPH dean, was funded by 30 donors and friends and matched by the university.
Willerson highlighted a few of Low’s many accomplishments, including dramatic increases in the university’s operating budget and research expenditures; recruitment of 1998 Nobel Laureate Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., to the UT Medical School at Houston; the forging of alliances with the Baker Institute at Rice University and Episcopal Health Charities; planning and funding the School of Nursing and Student Community Center building; and help in establishing the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine for the Prevention of Human Diseases.
“In that task (the IMM), you joined me and supported a dream I had, and I will always be grateful for that,” Willerson said.
On behalf of the UT Health Science Center at Houston,
President James T. Willerson, M.D., left, presents to Barbara
Low, Dr.P.H., and M. David Low, M.D., Ph.D., a framed
reproduction of a drawing of Western boots adorned with the
Canadian maple leaf. The original artwork was featured on an
invitation from the Lows to a barbecue thanking faculty and staff
who helped them settle in to their Houston home.
Former Development Board Chairman Rodney Margolis savored the opportunity to “stand up and speak before David Low” after years of following the articulate president to the podium at fund-raising events.
“There’s a time and a place for everyone,” Margolis said, “and UT needed what David Low had” as it set out to launch its first major development campaigns. At a time when it was critical to raise the institution’s profile, launch a building program and win community support, Low worked with the Development Board to make friends and advance the health science center’s cause.
The 25th Anniversary Endowment Campaign raised $17 million for 53 new endowments.
$10 million was raised for the School of Nursing and Student Community Center.
The first joint event with Memorial Hermann Hospital raised $1 million in a single night for the President Bush Cardiovascular Center at the hospital and for a similarly named endowed chair at the Medical School.
The first IMM campaign raised $30 million to launch the institute.
Low paid tribute to the students, the faculty and the university’s staff as the real heroes of the progress made during his presidency. He said, “Administrators propose, but it’s the faculty and staff who do the jobs that fulfill the mission, and the students give us the reason for being here in the first place.”
Former Medical School Dean John Ribble, M.D., praised Low for his ability to stimulate new ideas, for engaging the health science center in the community and his emphasis on health and how to improve it, including the social determinants of health: “who you are and where and how you live.”
In brief remarks, Low thanked faculty, staff, students and community friends. He remembered three important distinguished scientists and friends who have passed away: Hans Müller-Eberhard, M.D., Ph.D., first director of the IMM; former Medical School Dean Ernest Knobil, Ph.D.; and Tom Burks, Ph.D., executive vice president of research and academic affairs.
Finally, he thanked “the core of my being, the center of my soul, the reason for my life” – Barbara Low.
Barbara Low earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the UT School of Public Health and conducts research in adolescent health. Daughter Kelsey graduated from the Kinkaid School this spring and will attend the University of Victoria in the fall.
— By Scott Merville, Public Affairs