Postwar Expansion

Military drill practice on the University of Oregon Medical School campus, circa 1940
Military drill practice on the University of Oregon Medical School campus, circa 1940

Military service depleted the faculty during World War II, and those who remained worked long hours to support the school’s teaching and patient care programs. The need for physicians in both the military and the civilian population led to an accelerated year-round instruction schedule.

After World War II, more state funds were available to replace worn research and clinical equipment with new, modern equipment. The sound of new construction, curtailed during the war years, was heard once again on campus. In 1949, Baird Hall was built to house the Department of physiology and administrative offices. State funds built the Crippled Children’s Division facility (now known as the Child Development and Rehabilitation Center) in 1954, which continues to provide diagnosis and treatment for children throughout the state.

Dr. Charles Holman (left) and a colleague with the architectural model of the Medical School Hospital, erected in 1956
Dr. Charles Holman (left) and a colleague with the architectural model of the Medical School Hospital, erected in 1956

Perhaps the biggest postwar change for the medical school was the construction of the University Hospital. In 1955 a 14-story teaching hospital was built into a ravine on the south side of the hill. With the new facility came a radical restructuring of the school’s clinical faculty. Dean David W.E. Baird believed that medical education would benefit from full-time, dedicated physician educators, rather than relying primarily on physicians in private practice. He is credited with bringing clinicians to the medical school as full-time faculty members. During his tenure, the number of faculty members dramatically - from 10 in the 1920s to 125 in the 1950s. 

Cecil Keith Claycomb, M.S., Ph.D., working with students in a laboratory, 1963
Cecil Keith Claycomb, M.S., Ph.D., working with students in a laboratory, 1963
Ophthalmology student with instructor, circa 1940s
Ophthalmology student with instructor, circa 1940s
Joseph A. Beeman, M.D. giving a lecture, circa 1954
Joseph A. Beeman, M.D. giving a lecture, circa 1954