One Hundred Years of Progress: Excerpts from School of Pharmacy Centennial History

This document written in September 1972 by Robertson Pratt, PhD, a UCSF professor of pharmacognosy and antibiotics, is part of our History Archive. It was originally published on paper as a four-page newsletter. Below, it has been adapted for the web from that printed publication.

Jump below to

• School of Pharmacy 100 years
• Pharmacy briefs
• Bowl of Hygeia award
• A letter to pharmacy alumni from the dean
• Dr. Riegelman appointed to U.S.-British study group
• Centennial program

School of Pharmacy 100 years

The original College of Pharmacy of the University of California, in the last century. Date approximately 1881. Note moppets sitting on steps near entrance at 113 Fulton Street.

In August, 1872, the founders of the California College of Pharmacy stated their objectives in the Articles of Incor­poration.

On June 2, 1873, the College became affiliated with the University of California (but maintained its own board of direc­tors and continued to hold title to its assets and to manage its own affairs for the next 61 years).

On July 1, 1934, the College was fully incorporated into the University. It was designated the University of California College of Pharmacy, until 1955 when it became the University of California School of Pharmacy.

This new name reflected more accu­rately the length and character of the educational program that had by that time evolved, namely four years of pro­fessional study in the School preceded by two years of pre-professional collegiate study.

There were 27 students in the first entering class. There were four professors, each of whom presented one lecture, one evening per week.

At the time of the first graduation exercises in December, 1874, only one student appeared: John P. Heany, the first and only graduate of the new college that year.

The first “class” was graduated in 1875; it consisted of five students.

The first woman student to be grad­uated from the college was Josephine E. Barbat of San Francisco, in 1884.

In more recent years the number of women entering pharmacy has increased greatly.

Construction progress of the “Affiliated Colleges” of the University of California on Parnassus Heights in 1897.

To attract more young men and women from a broader ethnic and cultural base, a special recruitment program began in 1967.

The class of 1972 graduated 85 new pharmacists. The school’s alumni now number more than 4,500 men and women. The College was moved four times dur­ing its first 26 years of life to provide for the rapidly increasing number of students.

In 1875 it moved from two rented rooms on Montgomery Street to the larger Toland Hall on Stockton Street, and a year later to the Hall of the Academy of Sciences at Dupont and California Streets. Five years later a Fulton Street lot was purchased, a three-story building was erected, and in 1883, students and faculty moved into the building that was to be called home for 15 more years. In 1895 the legislature appropriated funds to build three buildings that were to house the Colleges of Pharmacy and Dentistry, Hastings College of Law and the Department of Medicine on land donated for the purpose by Adolph Sutro, then Mayor of San Francisco. The Law College never moved to “Par­nassus Heights”—too far from the Courts, they said. Eventually that building housed the Anthropology Museum. Its most note­worthy occupant was Ishi, the Yaqui Indian, who lived there from September, 1911 until his death in the spring of 1916. Ishi was the “last wild Indian of America.”

In 1898 the College of Pharmacy moved into its new home, joined by Den­tistry and Medicine on the new campus.

The University of California Medical Center at the turn of the century. Left background is the present Hooper Foundation, which was originally built to house a School of Veterinary Science but never did. Of the three buildings in the foreground, the left one is the Dental-Pharmacy Building, center is the Medical School Building, right is the structure originally built to house Hastings School of Law. Hastings never moved to this campus. Rather, the building housed an anthropology museum until its demolition in the early 1930’s to make way for the present Clinics Building. This photograph was taken from the approximate position of the present Langley Porter Clinic. The present giant 15-story Moffitt Hospital stands on the site of the field in the foreground. Parnassus Avenue is just off the picture to the right.

At that time, nothing existed between the campus and ocean but vast sand dunes.

In the first issue of the Pacific Phar­macist in 1907 it said, “It is never too hot or too cold in San Francisco to work with comfort. There is no exhaustion or sickness due to heat, cold or malaria, and zymotic diseases are rare. The new and commodious building erected by the State for the College of Pharmacy is a delightful place to work in, being spacious, light, airy and well-ventilated, and the faculty and equipment are up-to-date.”

In 1954, the College made its fifth move—to four floors of another building on the same site, the new $10,000,000, 14-story Medical Sciences Building.

Today the faculty of the School of Pharmacy is composed of 25 full-time academic professors, more than 30 part­-time academic professors, and more than 40 lecturers and clinical appointees, some part- and some full-time.

For the first time in the history of the School, an alumnus, Dr. Goyan, had been appointed to the top administrative post. Dean Goyan received his BS degree in 1952 and his PhD in 1957.

On completion of his graduate studies he joined the University of Michigan Col­lege of Pharmacy faculty, and in 1963 he returned to UCSF as an associate profes­sor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry.

The first dean of the College of Phar­macy was Dr. Emlen Painter, appointed in 1878. Thereafter, his successors were as follows:

Pharmacy briefs

• Donald L. Wolfe and Steven C. Forland, 4th- and 3rd-year students respectively, School of Pharmacy, won the 1972 Luns­ford Richardson Pharmacy Award for Un­dergraduate Research for their research paper submitted during the spring quar­ter. Their research project was carried out with Dr. Leslie Z. Benet, assistant pro­fessor of pharmacy and pharmaceutical chemistry.

• Dr. Eugene C. Jorgensen has been appointed associate dean, School of Phar­macy. Dr. Jorgensen is professor of chem­istry and pharmaceutical chemistry and has been a member of the School’s faculty since 1953. He is also vice chairman, De­partment of Pharmaceutical Chemistry. He is a graduate of UC Berkeley (BS in chemistry) and received his PhD in chemistry from UCLA. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, Amer­ican Pharmaceutical Association, and Sig­ma Xi Honor Society.

• Dr. Robert L. Day has been appointed associate dean of professional affairs, School of Pharmacy. Dr. Day, lecturer in pharmacy and assistant dean of stu­dent affairs, has been on the School’s fac­ulty since 1962. A native of Sacramento, he attended UC Berkeley and received his BS degree in pharmacy from UCSF and his PharmD degree in 1959 from UCSF. He is a member of APhA, California Phar­maceutical Association, Marin County Pharmaceutical Association, Rho Chi, and Kappa Psi. He is a member of the California State Board of Pharmacy Examina­tions Committee.

• 

  Robert D. Gibson, PharmD

  Dr. Robert D. Gibson, lecturer in pharmacy, has been appointed assistant dean of student affairs, to assume the duties of Dr. Day concurrent with Dr. Day’s ap­pointment. Dr. Gibson received his BA degree from the University of Oregon and BS and PharmD degrees from UCSF. On the faculty since 1965, Dr. Gibson has been primarily responsible for the School’s efforts in minority recruit­ment. He is a member of APhA, American Association for the Advancement of Sci­ence, American Society of Hospital Phar­macists, Federation Internationale Phar­maceutique, UC Pharmacy Alumni Asso­ciation, and the California Pharmaceutical Association. He is also director of the Pharmaceutical Technology Laboratory and consultant to numerous statewide and nationwide health agencies.

Bowl of Hygeia award

Lawrence L. Fleckenstein (right) accepts the Bowl of Hygeia from Dr. Jere E. Goyan, dean of the School of Pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco. The award is the highest given by the School and is presented annually to the graduate best exemplifying the attributes of the true pharmacist.

The coveted Bowl of Hygeia, highest award of the School of Pharmacy at the University of California, San Fran­cisco, was given this year to Lawrence L. Fleckenstein of San Francisco. He is the son of Mr. Ernest Fleckenstein and Mrs. Sally Gause, both of Medford, Oregon.

The award has been given annually since 1966 to the graduating senior judged by his classmates and faculty to best demonstrate the qualities of an ideal pharmacist. Dr. Fleckenstein was pre­sented with the bronze bowl and serpent, symbolic of the ancient Greek legend of Hygeia, the young woman who admin­istered healing medical potions to the afflicted. In modern times, the bowl and serpent have come to signify the art of pharmacy.

Dr. Fleckenstein was one of 84 stu­dents receiving the doctor of pharmacy degree at the 1972 commencement exer­cises on June 10. He attended Arcata High School and Humboldt State College in Humboldt County. A 1968 graduate of UC Berkeley, he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and received the 1968 Depart­mental Citation from the Department of Botany.

While completing the four-year phar­macy program at UCSF, Dr. Fleckenstein was active in student recruitment and a member of Rho Chi honorary.

Speaking on behalf of his classmates, he states, “Pharmacists should become involved with direct patient care. Most of us feel a personal commitment to the needs of individual patients.”

Two other pharmacy students received honorable mention: Richard G. Closson of Terra Linda and Patrick D. Ginn of Riverdale, California. Other nominees were Robert M. Elenbaas of Cyprus, California, and David L. Heeren of San Francisco.

A letter to pharmacy alumni from the dean

Dear fellow alumni:

This year, 1972, marks the 100th an­niversary of the founding of our school. The students, faculty and staff believe that you share our pride in past accom­plishments and our enthusiasm for the future promise of the institution. A cen­tennial is an appropriate time to review the past, and this has been done in the [accompanying] History of the School of Pharmacy prepared by Dr. Robertson Pratt, professor of pharmacognosy and antibiotics, UCSF. We hope you will find it both interesting and informative.

On September 23 and 24, the alumni association is joining with the School in presenting a program commemorating this milestone in our history. You are cordially invited to join with us at that time, and we look forward to the opportunity of exchanging remembrances with you.

Sincerely,

Jere E. Goyan
Dean

Dr. Riegelman appointed to U.S.-British study group

Dr. Sidney Riegelman, chairman of the Department of Pharmacy at UCSF, has been invited to participate in a joint United States-Great Britain Cooperative Program in Environmental Health Sciences. This program was jointly organized by Dr. Edward E. David, Jr., Scientific Ad­visor to the President, and by Sir Alan Cottrell, Chief Scientific Advisor to Her Majesty’s Government.

Dr. Riegelman will explore predictive methods to detect carcinogenic drugs and drugs which may contribute toxic effects. An example of the latter is the tragic effect seen in the use of thalidomide by pregnant women, the sedative drug which caused the birth of abnormal babies throughout the world.

The panel will review methods of pre­dicting the possible toxic effect of drugs, chemicals, and food additives when man is exposed to them at low levels for long periods of time.

Dr. Riegelman, who is also professor of pharmacy and pharmaceutical chem­istry here, is a noted authority in the study of factors influencing the absorp­tion, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of drugs and has received national awards for research in these areas.

Centennial program

Saturday, September 23, 1972

Sunday, September 24, 1972

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