The College of Pharmacy on Monday celebrated the naming of the Joseph D. and Millie E. Williams Science Hall with an overflow crowd and a group picture to thank the building’s namesakes.
Spectators, made up mostly of pharmacy faculty, staff and students, spilled almost to the 42nd Street sidewalk, on the west side of what was formerly known as the College of Pharmacy building.
The crowd applauded as Courtney Fletcher, Pharm.D., dean of the College of Pharmacy, Clarence Ueda, Pharm.D., Ph.D., dean emeritus, and Kelsey Morris, pharmacy student and recipient of the Joseph D. Williams scholarship, unveiled the new name, an unofficial kickoff to the events of Pharmacy Week.
As a boy, Joe Williams had dreamed of working in his grandfather’s Pawnee City, Neb., pharmacy, said Dr. Ueda. Dr. Ueda went on to tell his longtime friend’s life story: Joe Williams was a World War II vet who’d attended Nebraska’s pharmacy school on the GI Bill, and later became a pharmaceuticals industry giant.
This naming forever honors two individuals for their service to mankind and a lifetime of service and continued support for the pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences professions, Dr. Fletcher said.
Afterward, much of the college gathered for a group photo holding up signs that thanked the Williamses. And, for a lunch to cap off the event.
Appropriately, the lunches were given out inside the building, under the warm gaze of a portrait of Joe, which commemorated a previous gift.