Thank you. Likewise to our early faculty and staff, who helped us build our budding
medical school.
Thank you to the two deans who brought our school to maturity: Dr. Ocie
Harris and Dr. J. Fogarty. We now are producing undergraduates, Bridge students,
PA students, Ph.D. students and postdoctoral associates as well as medical
students. And we are proud indeed of them all.
Ocie also deserves thanks, along with Mollie Hill, for so skillfully laying the
foundation for our regional campuses – where the campus deans, Dennis Baker,
hundreds of community physicians and the hospitals where they practice have
done so much in the clinical training of our students.
Thanks also to Steve Edwards, longtime dean of faculties. He may have had a
reputation for being hard to work with, but we would’ve been sunk without him.
We had a million governance questions about setting up a new college, and he
answered every one of them. He helped us create something like 200 new faculty
positions in a phenomenally short time. Unbelievable.
None of this could have happened without my partner in crime, Helen
Livingston. She is the Watson to my Sherlock Holmes. While I was looking
beyond the horizon, she was looking down to make sure we put one foot in front
of the other and didn’t fall flat. I love her like a sister. We went through the fires
together, and we ended up with a medical school that fulfilled our visions.
I apologize in advance to anyone whose name should be on these pages but
isn’t. Naming names is risky, but I’ve always been a risk-taker! Many thanks to:
• My dad, Paul McEarl. He never once said, “You can’t do that because you’re a
girl.” My dad is the reason I’ve worked so well with men during my career.
• My mom, Myra Robbins. She had high expectations for me. If I ever got
an A-minus, she wanted to know about that minus. And she insisted that I
attend college.
• My great-aunt, Jennette Givens, who taught me to read before I started
school. She and my mom pushed me to excel. They’re responsible for whatever
success I’ve had.
• Alice Brooks, my Ozark High School teaching mentor, and Elizabeth
Brinkley, the botanist at Henderson State Teachers College who encouraged
me to get a Ph.D.
• My husband and biggest supporter, heart surgeon Julian Hurt. Whatever
it took, he was there. Especially with our children. He let them know they
had two parents who loved them, even when one of them had to miss their
ballgames or other events on occasion. He also stood up for me when his
colleagues badmouthed our fledgling medical school.
• Our children, Paul, Lilly and Samantha. They always let me know they were
proud to have a mom who was working to give other people a better life.
Paul, our eldest, made this long journey with me – and came out a strong
man. I’m proud of all my children and their accomplishments.
• Mike McGill, who introduced me to the Australian model of medical
education.
• Laura Brock, my friend and colleague from the beginning.
84 | Breaking the Mold