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TMC to Rename Street after Frederick C. Elliott
The late Frederick C. Elliott, D.D.S., one of founders of the Texas Medical Center, envisioned a section of Houston that would be dedicated to the betterment of health - a place where world-class institutions would be separated by no more than neighboring streets.
Noted Houston sculptor Margaret Losinki peers closely into the eyes of Frederick C. Elliott as she sculpts the face of the late Dental Branch dean. Losinki read Elliott's autobiography, Birth of the Texas Medical Center, as she designed the bas relief to get a true feeling for the kind of leader he was.
Photo by Erika E. Durham
Thanks to Elliott's vision and leadership, today that center is the largest of its kind in the world, and this summer one of those streets will bear his name.
Texas Medical Center (TMC) will dedicate a street to Elliott's memory in the midst of the Centennial year of The University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston, where Elliott served as dean from 1932- 1952. The street is located off Holcombe Boulevard, just south of Bertner Street. Up until now the street has remained unnamed.
A special ribbon-cutting ceremony will unveil the new street sign, a horizontal monument bearing Elliott's name and bronze portrait of his face.
Fifteen other streets in the TMC bear the names of its founders and founders of its member institutions, according to Mary Schiflett, TMC vice president. Noted sculptor Margaret Losinki is crafting the bas relief of Elliott's face and has worked on most of the honorary streets in the medical center. The inspiration for this sculpture came from the portrait hanging on the wall of the Dental Branch and from archival photographs that surfaced in preparation for the Centennial celebrations.
Elliott's autobiography, Birth of the Texas Medical Center - A Personal Account, edited by William Kellar, Ph.D., of the University of Houston, also has been released in this Centennial year. Richard Wainerdi, Ph.D., TMC president and chief executive officer wrote the book's foreword.
Richard E.Wainerdi, Ph.D.
"Frederick C. Elliott's career paralleled the early years of the Texas Medical Center, and he had a major role in determining just what this campus would be," Wainerdi said. "His dream was to develop new and existing small schools and hospitals into major world-class institutions that were capable of providing excellent health care, professional training, education and related research. His plans also included for this to be done in a modern, urban campus-like setting, and in this he succeeded quite well."
Wainerdi said that as one of the nine signers of the original charter establishing the Texas Medical Center in 1945, Elliott had a unique opportunity to influence what the campus would look like then, as well as help to direct its future layout.
"It is a fitting tribute," Wainerdi said, "that we name one of the entry streets into the Texas Medical Center for him and erect a monument at that place in his honor."