| Name | James A. Pittman, Jr., Papers |
| Dates | 1973-1995 |
| Extent | 3 cubic feet |
| Historical Note | James A. Pittman, Jr. (1927-2014), was a native of Orlando, Florida. He graduated cum laude from Davidson College in 1948 and from the Harvard Medical School in 1952. Dr. Pittman completed an internship and residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and the completed post-graduate training at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1956 he accepted a residency at the Medical College of Alabama in Birmingham and one year later became chief medical resident under the tutelage of Dr. Tinsley R. Harrison. Pittman joined the medical faculty in 1959 and in 1964 was named a professor of Medicine. Dr. Pittman's focus was endocrinology and nuclear medicine, and from 1962 until 1971 he served as the second director of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism. He was also a consultant for the Birmingham Veterans Administration Hospital and Children's Hospital. In 1971 Pittman left UAB to become the chief medical director for research and education for the U.S. Veterans Administration in Washington, DC. In 1973 he was recruited back to UAB as dean of the School of Medicine. Dr. Pittman served as dean for an almost unprecedented 19 years. When he retired from the deanship in 1992, James A. Pittman, Jr., was named a Distinguished Professor of UAB by the Board of Trustees of the University of Alabama System. Among his many campus activities, Dr. Pittman was a strong supporter and donor to the Reynolds Historical Library (later the Reynolds-Finley Historical Library), the Alabama Museum of the Health Sciences, and the UAB Archives, serving as chair of an archives advisory committee during his early post-retirement period. He was also a donor to UAB's Lister Hill Library of the Health Sciences and to the Mervyn H. Sterne Library. In 1982 UAB selected Pittman as its Distinguished Faculty Lecturer and later renamed the general clinical research center and the Center for Advanced Medical Studies in his honor. Among numerous honors and awards, Dr. Pittman received the 1990 Abraham Flexner Award from the Association of American Medical Colleges, the 1991 Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and the 1992 Breath of Life Award from the National Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He received honorary doctorates from Davidson College and from UAB. In 1982 Dr. Pittman was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor and in 2001 he was inducted into the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame. James A. Pittman, Jr., died in Birmingham in 2014 after a lengthy illness. During his tenure as dean of the UAB medical school and during retirement, Pittman worked on a biography of his mentor, colleague and friend, Dr. Tinsley Harrison. The unfinished manuscript of Pittman's biography of Harrison was completed by his colleague, Dr. Joe Larussa, and was published posthumously in 2015 as Tinsley R. Harrison, MD: Teacher of Medicine by James A. Pittman, Jr. |
| Scope and Contents | Includes certificates, plaques, and audiovisuals |
| Arrangement | Organized by material format |
| Accession Number | Various |
| Provenance | Items within this collection donated/transferred to the UAB Archives directly from Dr. Pittman over the course of several years. The items were first arranged in 1994 and items were added on a regular basis. |
| Copyright | The UAB Archives owns the copyright to some of the material and maintains its proprietary rights to all material in this collection. |
| Fnding Aid | Printed descriptive guide by William A. Harris, revised by Tim L. Pennycuff, available in repository. |
| Access Points | Harrison, Tinsley Randolph, d 1900-1978. Pittman, James A., d 1927-2014. University of Alabama in Birmingham. University of Alabama at Birmingham. |
| Document Types | Certificates, Motion Pictures, Plaques, Videocassettes. |
| Location | Manuscript Stacks |
| Related Series | PMC13, James A. Pittman Photograph Collection |
| Physical Condition | Acid free foldesr, acid free boxes |
This page created 2017
Copyright: The University of Alabama Board of Trustees.