UNMC History 101 – Philanthropy then and now

Private philanthropy, especially for capital construction projects, has increased substantially in the nearly 100 years since the campus was established at 42nd and Dewey streets in 1913.

Conkling Hall was among the first buildings on the UNMC campus that was constructed in large part thanks to private donations. It was later demolished to make room for The Lied Transplant Center, which also was built in large part with private donations.

The first buildings on the campus, Poynter Hall (1913), University Hospital Unit I (1917) and Bennett Hall (1919) were all built with state funds.

In 1923, one of the first significant private donations to UNMC made possible the construction of Conkling Hall, the first home of the School (later College) of Nursing. The building, which cost $70,000, was named in honor of longtime Omaha doctor Jetur Riggs Conkling through a gift from his widow.

Lied’s impact

Conkling Hall was demolished in 1996 to make way for The Lied Transplant Center, dedicated in 1998 and built at a cost of $50 million. Of this amount, 30 percent — or $15 million — was provided through the Lied Foundation Trust.

The transplant center is dedicated to the memory of Ernst Lied, and his parents. Lied owned a successful Omaha car dealership and in 1950 sold this business and moved to Las Vegas, where he invested in real estate. Lied — who left nearly all of his assets to the Lied Foundation Trust — died in 1980 at the age of 74.

Philanthropic windfall

Of course, this was all a prelude to the past decade, in which hundreds of millions of dollars in private donations led to the construction of several new buildings on UNMC campuses throughout the state. The new structures built in the past 10 years include (construction completion date in parenthesis):

• The Durham Research Center (2003);
  
• The Sorrell Center (2008);
  
• The Weigel-Williamson Center for Visual Rehabilitation (2008);
  
• The Durham Research Center II (2009);
  
• The Home Instead Center for Successful Aging (2010);
  
• The J. Paul and Eleanor McIntosh College of Nursing in Norfolk (2010);
  
• The Center for Nursing Science (2010);
  
• The Harold M. and Beverly Maurer Center for Public Health (2011);
  
• The Ruth and Bill Scott Student Plaza (2011);
  
• The Stanley M. Trulsen Eye Institute (Construction scheduled to end later this year).