Endowment of a professorship, an honor originally established in England 500 years ago with the creation of the Lady Margaret chairs in divinity at Oxford and Cambridge, brings prestige not only to a department and institution, but also to the faculty member upon whom this honor is bestowed. An endowment also provides the financial support to attract the best and brightest of medicine’s future generation.
That was the underlying theme on Friday, Jan. 26, as faculty and staff of the Department of Medicine came together to honor those faculty members who hold endowed professorships and the donors who made it all possible. Those faculty include Drs. John G. Bartlett, Paul S. Lietman, Stephen C. Achuff, James L. Weiss, Paul W. Ladenson, Marvin M. Schuster, Mark Donowitz, Lewis C. Becker, John R. Burton, William R. Bell, Joe G.N. Garcia, Eduardo Marban, Frank M. Giardiello, David M. Levine, David B. Helmmann, and D. William Schlott.
“Endowed professorships are frequently named in honor of the donor, a person of the donor’s choosing, or an esteemed member of the faculty like William Osler or Philip Tumulty,” said Paul G. Miller, former Chairman/CEO of Commercial Credit Company and donor to the D. William Schlott Professorship in Clinical Medicine. “This tradition makes each named professorship a permanent tribute to the generosity of the individual or family who endowed or inspired it.”