Editor’s Note: With rain expected throughout the weekend, organizers have decided to move Monday’s 11 a.m. groundbreaking ceremony to the Truhlsen Events Center inside the Sorrell Center.
On June 24, the UNMC community is invited to celebrate the Wigton Heritage Center groundbreaking and the launch of the Wittson Hall renovation.
The outdoor ceremony will begin at 11 a.m. in the green space located south of Eppley Science Hall and west of Wittson Hall. Due to construction fencing, please enter the site south of Poynter Hall. In the event of inclement weather, the ceremony will take place inside the Sorrell Center’s Truhlsen Events Center. The ceremony also will be available via Facebook Live on the UNMC account.
The 10,000-square-foot Wigton Heritage Center will celebrate and memorialize UNMC’s history, while also serving as a campus welcome center. In addition, the fully privately funded project will replace the existing walkways between Wittson Hall and University Tower. The buildings will be connected through a multi-floor space.
Major funding for the Wigton Heritage Center has been committed by Robert Wigton, M.D., a 1969 alumnus of the College of Medicine who served as professor in internal medicine at UNMC and in several key administrative areas in the College of Medicine, including associate dean for graduate medical education. The Wigton legacy spans three generations with several physicians within the family serving UNMC.
The Leland J. and Dorothy H. Olson Charitable Foundation also provided a generous gift in support of the Wigton Heritage Center project. Leland Olson, M.D., and Dorothy Hodges Olson, both deceased, were University of Nebraska alumni and major contributors to UNMC for a variety of women’s health and university initiatives. Dr. Olson, a respected obstetrician and gynecologist in Omaha, was a volunteer UNMC physician staff member and mentored medical interns in his practice.
Following the groundbreaking ceremony, a reception will take place from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Linder Reading Room inside the Sorrell Center. The campus community is invited to stop by and congratulate Dr. Wigton, as well as view a video fly-by of the Wigton Heritage Center. Campus leaders will provide brief comments beginning at 12:15 p.m. Light refreshments will be available.
The UNMC Department of Facilities Management and Planning’s construction blog provides up-to-date information on the project including alternate pedestrian traffic routes.