Center, library floor named after UNMC faculty

James Armitage, M.D.	Robert Wigton, M.D.

The University of Nebraska Board of Regents voted Friday to rename two areas at UNMC in honor of two longtime professors who have made extraordinary contributions to the institution.

The Center for Leukemia and Lymphoma Research, established in 2003, was renamed by the board to the Dr. James O. Armitage Center for Leukemia and Lymphoma Research in honor of his internationally recognized expertise in the treatment of lymphoma.

In 1982, Kearney, Neb. native James Armitage, M.D., launched one of the most successful bone marrow transplant programs in the world for the treatment of blood cancers at UNMC. The medical center’s first bone marrow transplant was performed on April 1, 1983.

Since that time, Dr. Armitage, the Joe Shapiro Professor of Medicine, has seen it grow into a world-renowned program that has performed 5,000 transplants in patients from all 50 states and more than a dozen countries — 4,530 transplants in adults and 470 in children. Most adults have sought the treatment for cancers of the blood; in particular, lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma. Pediatric transplants are normally performed for patients with more aggressive diseases such as acute leukemias and neuroblastoma as well as non-malignant diseases such as aplastic anemia and severe combined immunodeficiency.

Dr. Armitage, a 1973 UNMC graduate, has served UNMC in various capacities including chairman of internal medicine and dean of the College of Medicine. In January, Dr. Armitage was named deputy editor of the Journal of Oncology Practice that is published by the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

The Board of Regents also approved the renaming of the eighth floor of UNMC’s McGoogan Library of Medicine to the “Wigton History of Medicine Archives” in honor of longtime library supporter, Robert Wigton, M.D.

Known as the campus historian, Dr. Wigton, a 1969 graduate of UNMC, has given financial support to the library for special projects in the past, but recently gave the library its largest gift ever.

Dr. Wigton grew up surrounded by living history as his family members were friends with the influential people responsible for the growth of the medical center. He is a third-generation UNMC alumnus and faculty member – grandfather, Harrison, graduated in 1905, and his father, Robert, graduated in 1935. They both served as faculty members in neurology and psychiatry.

Dr. Wigton was associate dean for graduate medical education for 37 years until he retired from that position in 2013. He is now part time as the assistant dean of special projects and professor of internal medicine.

His vision for special collections and historical programming led him to collaborate with library staff to:

• Support the library’s programs to make available online the extensive and growing archive of historical data, photos and stories about UNMC faculty and personnel. The growing online resource provides an important link to alumni, faculty, scholars and the general public with information about UNMC’s history.
• Help sponsor historical scholarship that will be available to UNMC and other universities.
• Provide McGoogan Library of Medicine with historical photos that formed the foundation of the library’s archive.
• Create an exhibit of historical photos of the College of Medicine from its beginning as the Omaha Medical College to the present. The exhibit is on display on the second and third floors of the Durham Outpatient Center.
• Commemorate the 100th anniversary of Poynter Hall with the dedication of the walkway between Poynter and Wittson Hall as a Nebraska State Historical Marker in 2014.
• Bring online the history and images of the deans of the College of Medicine in an exhibit called, “130 Years of Leadership,” which now hangs outside the college administrative offices on the fourth floor of the Sorrell Center.
• Continue to add to the substantial collection of oral histories of UNMC on audio recordings and videos, all of which will be available online.