For 22 years, Swanson Hall was my second home.
The UNMC Public Relations Department was housed on the fifth floor of Swanson.
We loved it up there in the penthouse.
Most of us had our own private offices – converted sleeping rooms from the days the building housed Children’s Hospital and physicians needed a place to grab a little shuteye.
In 2009, PR got asked to move to the 4230 Building, as a number of surgeons needed office space that was connected to the hospital.
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The 4230 Building has turned out to be a great spot for our department. But all of us who worked in Swanson still have a soft spot for the building that will be going down to make room for the Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center.
In no particular order, I wanted to share some of my favorite memories of good ol’ Swanson:
- You could get almost anywhere on campus from Swanson without going outside;
- Playing the occasional Nerf basketball game in my office (hey, you have to do something to alleviate the incredible job pressure);
- Schmoozing with Linda (aka Lulabelle) Spellman when Biomedical Communications was down on the first floor;
- Trudging up four flights of stairs every day – just the perfect number of stairs to not get too worn out;
- Schmoozing with Marlene Schneider (aka Marlene Dietrich) and Susan Smith (aka Susie Q) in the employee assistance program on fourth floor. There were no issues that brought me there . . . just two delightful ladies;
- The third floor men’s restroom on the east wing. Beware if you were claustrophobic;
- Schmoozing with Ann Grandjean, the world-famous nutritionist on third floor. She always had a good joke;
- The annual holiday party for Swanson inhabitants. Tons of good food and camaraderie;
- Schmoozing down on first floor with Denham Harman, M.D., Ph.D., father of the free radical theory on aging. What a man – UNMC’s closest contender for the Nobel Prize; and
- Finally, a scary, but memorable, moment of looking out our conference room window in January 1988 to see a crashed SkyMed helicopter burning on the landing pad less than two months after I started. Thankfully, nobody was seriously hurt – if you don’t count yours truly, who learned a lot about how to not handle a media crisis.
GREAT story Tom!
Thanks Tom brings back a lot of memories!
Great story, Tom, and it does capture a lot of the great memories. I was a long term inhabitant too at almost 29 years. I like to say I grew up in Swanson and was a long term member of the Swanson Hall Neighborhood Assoc. No story about Swanson is complete, however, unless "The Great Mouse Rescue from Robin Taylor's Typewriter' is mentioned. I think the mouse beat us back into the building. And, a typewriter? Dates the story, eh?!
Very interesting story-we were housed in Swanson also, however for a much shorter time. I always found it fascinating thatit was theorignal Childrens Hospital and love the little cherubs on the ceiling that was the entryway. Thanks for sharing your memories.
Ah, the Swanson days…hanging out in the courtyard while fire alarms went off for no reason, saving co-workers from roaches the size of a Fiat, otherworldly odors eminating from the elevator shaft, and an office so cramped I had to move part of my desk to get in and out. Those were the days. 🙂 I do miss having my PR peeps right upstairs, though. Swanson Hall was where I taught Bill O'Neil the correct way to go through a double door!
Great story, TO. Your gregarious, happy persona shines through.
Best,
John Benson