Explore UAB

Anita Sellers, secretary in the Office of Communications, with the new and enlarged directory for the university campus. The 6x9 inch publication contained 96 pages with a simple alphabetical listing of staff and an administrative listing of offices and programs. The last printed Campus Directory distributed to the UAB campus was released in 2009. The 8x11 inch publication contained over 570 pages.

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The first major addition to University Hospital in decades, the North Wing was dedicated during ceremonies held August 20-21, 1966. The seven story addition provided space for the emergency department, new operating suites, diagnostic radiology, and 100 beds for psychiatric patients. This western side of North Wing is no longer visible as the Quarterback Tower currently stands where the parking lot existed at the time of the dedication.

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Primitiva Isar (left) and Leonides Bulawin (right), who were working in the hospital as Exchange Visitor Nurses, enjoy a visit with Santa Claus.

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Reviewing a patient’s chart are (left to right) Linda West, Instructor June Williamson, Sandra Moody, and Frances Pippen. The School of Nursing was founded in September 1950 and was originally located at The University of Alabama. Nursing students first traveled from the Tuscaloosa campus to the Birmingham medical center in June 1953 to obtain clinical training. In August 1967 the school was moved to Birmingham to become an integral component of UAB.

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In August of 1967 the nursing school was moved from its original home on the campus in Tuscaloosa to Birmingham to become part of the growing Medical Center. The nursing residence hall (later renamed Hixson Hall) offered living and entertainment areas for the students moving to Birmingham.

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Smiles all around as Santa Claus stops to chat with medical students in the cafeteria of University Hospital, 1967.

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Hospital Administrator Matthew F. McNulty, Jr. (right), tours Frank E. and Margaret Cameron Spain through the new center named in their honor while hospital staff demonstrate a circular treatment bed. The Spains donated half a million dollars to help fund the Medical Center's rehabilitation facility and the center was officially opened during ceremonies held April 25-26, 1964.

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The Department of Chemistry was established in 1966 as one of the original academic units in the College of General Studies. Originally housed within the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, the chemistry department was part of the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics from 1973 until 2009. In January 2010 chemistry became one of the academic departments in UAB's new College of Arts and Sciences.

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On September 15, 1966, the extension program in Birmingham was officially renamed as the College of General Studies. There were 4,600 students enrolled in courses in business, education, engineering, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences. Dr. George W. Campbell was named as first dean of the new college.

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Pictured are (left to right) Don Bowermann, president of the Birmingham Chapter of the American Institute of Industrial Engineers, and Dr. Joseph H. Appleton, professor of Civil Engineering. The AIIE chapter provided funding for the lettering on the building. Dr. Appleton later served as director of the Engineering Division from 1967 until 1971 and as first dean of the School of Engineering from 1971 until 1978. The engineering program began in the 1940s and was the first non-health related program at UAB where students could complete all of their coursework in Birmingham.

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The Eye Foundation Hospital in Birmingham was dedicated on December 8, 1963, and was opened to patients later that month.  The private, independent hospital was constructed at the edge of the university medical center campus.  Dr. Alston Callahan, founder of the hospital, was on the original faculty of the medical school and had served as the inaugural chair of the Department of Ophthalmology from 1945 until 1954.  The Eye Foundation Hospital was acquired by UAB in 1997 and was later renamed in honor of its founder.  The brick building on the left of this image was the dormitory for students enrolled in the University Hospital nursing school.  This later named Hixson Hall was demolished by UAB in 2007.

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Located within University Hospital, the switchboard for the Medical Center was the largest private board exchange in the state and employed a team of 16.  The switchboard operators were also responsible for the hospital’s paging and emergency alarm systems.

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Dr. Alan R. Dimick (left) and Dr. John W. Kirklin (right) provide a hospital tour for a member of the Shriner organization. Kirklin, a renowned surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, was recruited to Birmingham in July of 1966. At UAB he served as chair of the surgery department, as director of the cardiothoracic surgery division, as hospital chief-of-staff, and as founder and president of the Health Services Foundation. He retired from UAB in 1997.

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On June 16, 1969, Dr. Volker was named president-elect of the "University of Alabama in Birmingham," and he officially assumed the presidency of the newly independent university on September 5, 1969. The office of the new president was located on the first floor of the Lyons-Harrison Research Building; the same office he had occupied for years as vice president and head of all operations in Birmingham.

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Decorations installed outside the hospital's main entrance on South 19^th Street highlighted the "75^th Year of Good Health to All." The predecessor entity of the Hillman Hospital had been established in October of 1888 to provide care for Birmingham's needy citizens.

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On Sunday, September 15, 1963, the emergency clinic at University Hospital received those injured in the bombing of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The hospital also received the bodies of the four children killed in the blast.

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University Hospital and a special Christmas visitor send holiday greetings to hospital patients, visitors and staff, circa 1967.

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