| Richard D. Ruppert, M.D. 1977-1993 |
In 1977, MUO was at the beginning of a period of expansion. Three buildings had
been completed on the new West Campus, construction had started on the new teaching
hospital and recruitment and retention of distinguished faculty members was well
under way. Those associated with the college sensed things would accelerate even
more when Richard D. Ruppert, M.D., arrived on campus that year as MUO's third
president.
When he arrived from Columbus, where he had served as vice chancellor for
health affairs of the Ohio Board of Regents, Dr. Ruppert had three priorities
-- expand the size of the faculty, develop an identity for the college, and
build the campus.
They were tall orders, but when he retired in 1993 after 16 years as president,
he reached most of that agenda and set the institution on course for new achievements.
His many accomplishments included:
* Completion of the Yamasaki master plan for the 350-acre campus
(now expanded to nearly 500 acres) that contained 10 buildings;
* A faculty of 366 full- and part-time members; and,
* An alumni of more than 2,000 physicians who practiced in 48 states and the
District of Columbia.
MUO had two campuses when Dr. Ruppert arrived -- one in a group of buildings,
including the former Maumee Valley Hospital, at the southeast corner of Detroit
and Arlington avenues, and the beginnings of the present West Campus on land
between Arlington and Glendale avenues west of the Toledo Mental Health Center.
At that time the college had graduated only six medical classes -- the first
in 1972 -- totaling 299 students, and 234 full- and part-time faculty members
had offices, clinics and laboratories on both campuses.
In his first year at MUO, planning began for a 25-bed child and adolescent
psychiatric hospital that became a reality six years later. Today it is known
as the Lenore W. and Marvin S. Kobacker Center. The year also saw completion
of affiliation agreements with Toledo, Mercy and Flower hospitals and the Toledo
Mental Health Center for the training of medical students and residents, moves
Dr. Ruppert said helped solidify the college's educational programs.
And efforts by Dr. Ruppert, as vice chancellor for health affairs, with the
assistance of Kenneth Proefrock, who then was associated with Northeastern Ohio
Universities College of Medicine, gained federal government planning funds for
the Area Health Education Center (AHEC) program. The effort led to the implementation
in 1981 of a statewide AHEC program. In northwestern Ohio, centers associated
with MUO were developed in Sandusky, Lima and Bryan with the expansion of the
clinical faculty in these areas.
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Dr. Ruppert, left, talks
with Robert T. Tidrick , M.D.,
professor of surgery, during the move of patients
to the new University Medical Center on Dec. 15, 1979.
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"Providing the proper training facilities helps develop outstanding young graduates
of MUO," Dr. Ruppert observed in a 1993 interview. "The graduates gain good residencies
and become part of your identity. Other institutions begin to know about your
school.
"As you grow, you develop an identity even in the immediate surrounding communities.
People begin to realize that the medical students and residents working in community
hospitals are from MUO."
Despite a period of double-digit inflation and continuing state financial problems
that at one point saw MUO's budget cut four times in 16 months, there was explosive
construction growth on the campus from 1979 through 1988.
"During tough financial times you have to make some hard decisions," Dr. Ruppert
noted in 1993. "You have to think of both the short term and the long term, and
you have to make sure you do not eliminate something that is a significant function."
At the same time, he observed, "If you lose funding you have to come up with money
from some other source."
MUO had shown in the mid-1970s that it could do that. Residents of northwest Ohio
contributed $7 million toward the cost of the University Medical Center.
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With help from David Benfer,
University Medical Center executive director
, left, and MUO President Richard D. Ruppert, M.D.,
Pearl Yaekel cuts the ribbon to officially dedicate
the
University Medical Center on Nov. 30, 1979. Mrs. Yaekel, an x-ray technician,
was selected to do the honors because she was the senior
MUO staff member at the time, having joined the former
Maumee Valley Hospital on Sept. 20, 1945.
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Dr. Ruppert was soon able to attract additional gifts. The college received $3
million from the Charles A. Dana Foundation, the Dana Corp. and the Dana Corporation.
Foundation for the construction of the Eleanor N. Dana Center for Continuing Health
Education; $650,000 from the Dowling Trust and the Kresge Foundation toward the
cost of what is today known as the MUO-Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital at the Coghlin
Pavilion, and more than $1 million from the Mr. and Mrs. Kobacker for the Center.
All the facilities opened between 1979 and 1983.
In addition to completion of the University Medical Center, the Hospital Support Building that
today is known as Dowling Hall, the Dana Center, MUO-Mercy Rehabilitation Hospital
at the Coghlin Pavilion and the Kobacker Center, construction also began on the
Facilities Support Building, and on the Health Center that opened in January 1988
and that today bears Dr. Ruppert's name as well as on the Henry L. Morse Physical
Health Research Center that opened Dec. 4, 1986. Another building--the Toledo
Hilton--opened on campus July 15, 1988 with private funding.
During the early 1990s, MUO added 101 acres formerly owned by the Toledo Mental
Health Center adjacent to MUO's existing campus for the development of the Advanced
Technology Park of Northwest Ohio, a technology park that Dr. Ruppert first proposed
in 1984 as a method of bringing funds to the college through long-term leases
in the park and opportunities for MUO scientists to work on projects with private
industry, an important relationship both for the benefit of the institution and
the community. In addition, planning began on the development of a new building
to house the schools of nursing and allied health.
Building construction was not the only area of growth during his tenure as president.
Dr. Ruppert turned his attention to the development of academic programs, and
the college caught the attention of friends in the private sector.
Harold and Helen McMaster, who have contributed millions of dollars to colleges
and universities in northwest Ohio, provided funds in the early 1980s for creation
at MUO of the McMaster Recombinant DNA laboratory and in October 1989 endowed
the Helen and Harold McMaster Chair in Molecular Biology in the Department of
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
The Coghlin Institute, founded by Ida Marie Dowling in her mother's name, Eleanore
Coghlin Wilson, in June 1983, provided funds for the creation of the Eleanore
Coghlin Chair in Rehabilitation Medicine, a gift that Dr. Ruppert said illustrated
that the college was moving positively in the development of its faculty, staff
and programs. In January 1990, a third chair was created when the France Stone
Foundation endowed the Clair F. Martig Chair in Ahzheimer's Disease Research at
MUO. And for many years the Stranahan family, which was synonymous with Champion
Spark Plug Co., contributed to MUO's development, including two major endowments
for laser therapy and organ transplantation research.
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