History of UT Southwestern:

Since its formation in makeshift quarters in 1943, Southwestern Medical College has grown from a small wartime medical school into The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, an institution recognized internationally for its clinical and research programs, as well as for excellence in the education of physicians, medical scientists and health-care personnel.

Under the leadership of Dr. Edward H. Cary, a group of prominent Dallasites organized the Southwestern Medical Foundation in 1939 to promote medical education and research. When Baylor University elected to move its school of medicine from Dallas to Houston, the foundation formally founded Southwestern Medical College as the 68th medical school in the United States. Borrowing equipment and using public school classrooms, the school began classes July 1, 1943, with some former Baylor faculty and students who stayed in Dallas. Nine months later, Southwestern granted Doctor of Medicine degrees to its first 61 graduates. The school's first "permanent" home was in prefabricated shacks behind old Parkland Hospital on Maple Avenue.

When a new state-supported medical school was proposed after World War II, Southwestern Medical Foundation offered its facilities and some support funds if the school were located in Dallas. The University of Texas and the State Legislature accepted this concept, and in 1949 the college became Southwestern Medical School of The University of Texas. In 1955, the present campus site was occupied with completion of E. H. Cary Hall on scenic acreage adjacent to the new Parkland Memorial Hospital on Harry Hines Boulevard.

In November 1972 the name and scope of the medical school were changed with its reorganization into the University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas. This redesignation gave recognition to the growth and diversification of the school's education and research programs within separate medical, graduate and undergraduate components.

In October 1987, the UT Board of Regents approved changing the name of the health science center to The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, reconfirming its original "Southwestern" identity.

last edited: 23 August 2003