Robert “Bob” Connor, a longtime UNMC employee who served as director of the pharmacy department, which included all pharmacy operations, at UNMC University Hospital, died May 13. He was 87.
Connor was director of pharmacy when the College of Pharmacy moved from Lincoln and became part of UNMC’s Omaha campus in 1972-73. “He was instrumental in developing that department as it expanded to meet the pharmacy practice needs as well as the integration of the College of Pharmacy’s hospital pharmacy experiential education requirements during the transition,” said Sam Augustine, PharmD, professor of pharmacy practice at Creighton University, and a UNMC alumnus.
It was during this time period that the UNMC College of Pharmacy became the third pharmacy program in the United States to establish the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) as the only terminal pharmacy degree it awards.
Connor was director of pharmacy through 1978, and held the position for more than a decade, helping establish the first American Society of Hospital Pharmacy (now the American Society of Health-systems Pharmacy)-accredited hospital pharmacy residency program in Nebraska.
Visitation and services were earlier this week.