Intercom

Volume2/1981_October26INTERCOM WINTROBE BUILDING DEDICATION A new seven-story education and research facility at University of Utah Medical Center will be named Tuesday, October 27, for Dr. Maxwell M. Wintrobe, Distinguished Professor of Internal Medicine, and one of the world's foremost hematologists. Author of the premier text on clinical hematology, Dr. Wintrobe is considered one of the founding fathers of the University of Utah's four-year medical school. University President David Pierpont Gardner will dedicate the building at an 11 a.m. ceremony, officially naming it "The Maxwell M. Wintrobe Research and Education Building." "Since joining the University of Utah faculty in 1943 when he was already a well-known and highly respected physician, teacher, and researcher, Dr. Wintrobe has contributed immeasurably to the international reputation which the School of Medicine now enjoys. His association has given our medical school a professional credibility which his continued presence has enhanced over the years," the University President says. When Dr. Wintrobe left Johns Hopkins University for Utah, the Utah medical school was a fledgling operation housed in a building originally built as a dormitory for World War I cavalry officers. The school's clinical work was done in the old Salt Lake County Hospital where, as a former dean said, "The administration changed every time the politicians did." The Utah medical school had its beginnings with two course offerings in 1904, became a four-year medical school in 1943 and awarded its first doctor of medicine degrees in 1944. Dr. Wintrobe holds both doctor of medicine and doctor of philosophy degrees. He was named a Distinguished Professor of Internal Medicine in 1970. This is the highest academic rank awarded by the University. Dr. Wintrobe has written more than 400 scholarly articles for professional journals and has served more than 100 visiting professorships around the world. He has received many honors including the Kober Medal of the Association of American Physicians and a number of honorary degrees. Dr. Wintrobe has been president of many professional organizations such as the Association of American Physicians, the Western Association of American Physicians, the American Society of Hematology and the International Society of Hematology. His book, Clinical Hematology, was first published in 1942. Now in its eighth edition, it has been translated into three languages and is used by medical schools worldwide. In addition, Dr. Wintrobe was one of the founding editors of Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, a textbook now in its ninth edition. It is the most widely used textbook in internal medicine. Dr. Wintrobe was editor-in-chief of the sixth and seventh editions. "Dr. Wintrobe epitomizes the academic physician," according to Dr. G. Richard Lee, dean of the University of Utah School of Medicine and a student and colleague of Dr. Wintrobe. "He demands and receives the very best from his students. He sees the preparation for and the practice of medicine as deserving the best efforts the best minds can give," says Dr. Lee. Within the last two months, Dr. Wintrobe has delivered a special lecture on perspectives in hematology to the European and African Division of the International Society of Hematology; received an honorary doctor of medicine degree from the University of Athens, Greece; served a visiting professorship at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada; delivered the John Herr Musser lecture at Tulane University and received the American Medical Writers' Association award for the best medical book by a physician for his recent work, Blood, Pure and Eloquent. The new education and research building to be named in Dr. Wintrobe's honor is between the medical center and the mountains to the east. The top two floors have been leased by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for an expansion of its genetics program. Consisting of 70,000 square feet, the building is a mix of classrooms, conference and seminar rooms and scientific laboratories'.'The building also includes a 150-seat auditorium named for Gordon and Betty Browning who have made a bequest providing for health sciences scholarships at the University. The laboratories in the new building are designed to combine the offices with the "bench areas." Researchers can see their laboratories, communicate with the technicians and physically pass items back and forth between the labs and offices