Day inducted into CPhA Hall of Fame

Robert Day, PharmD, UCSF School of Pharmacy associate dean and emeritus faculty member, was inducted into the California Pharmacists Association Hall of Fame during the association's February 4-7, 2010 meeting in Long Beach, California. The honor marks Day's long and distinguished history of service and professional achievements, character, altruism, and commitment to innovation.

"Bob has been a bold and outspoken champion of pharmacy and its potential since he graduated from UCSF with his PharmD in the late 1950's, and his passion only increased when he joined the UCSF faculty in 1962," noted UCSF School of Pharmacy Dean Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD. "There is no one like him, no more dedicated mentor to students, no better role model to students and practitioners alike. He spurs us to question the status quo and turn possibilities into realities."

Day is known as an ardent supporter of pharmacy student organizations and student advocacy, of continuous quality improvement in both teaching methods and curricula, and for "doing the right thing," says Koda-Kimble.

In the 1970s he spearheaded the revival of the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP). He was key, in the 1980s, in paving the way, with UCSF faculty colleague David Adler, PharmD, and future colleague Lorie Rice, MPH, for scores of Vietnamese refugee pharmacists from the University of Saigon College of Pharmacy to eventually qualify to take the Foreign Pharmacy Graduate Equivalency Examination. He and Adler secured funding for refresher coursework offered on the University of California, San Diego campus. Then, he and Rice worked with California Assemblyman Art Agnos who sponsored a state bill that allowed the Vietnamese pharmacists to sit for the California Board of Pharmacy licensure examination without being required to produce the college transcripts that were lost to them.

Day has served as president of the Peninsula Pharmaceutical Society, president of the San Mateo County Pharmaceutical Association, and chair of the Council of Deans and member of the Board of Directors of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Pharmaceutical Society of San Francisco and on numerous professional association committees at the local, state, and national levels. He was a member of the Competency Committee of the California State Board of Pharmacy for more than 20 years, founder and chapter author of the APhA Handbook on Non-Prescription Medication, and the primary contributor to the conceptualization, design, and implementation of the UCSF School of Pharmacy's Thomas A. Oliver Informatics Resource Center, a state-of-the-art, electronic-based instructional facility. He is the recipient of many awards, including the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the UCSF Pharmacy Alumni Association, two award citations from the Vietnamese Pharmacists Association of America, the ASP Chapter Advisor of the Year Award and the ASP Linwood E. Tice Friend of ASP Award, both from APhA-ASP.


About the School: The UCSF School of Pharmacy aims to solve the most pressing health care problems and strives to ensure that each patient receives the safest, most effective treatments. Our discoveries seed the development of novel therapies, and our researchers consistently lead the nation in NIH funding. The School’s doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) degree program, with its unique emphasis on scientific thinking, prepares students to be critical thinkers and leaders in their field.