academic role model, The

American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, Winter 2000 by Sagraves, Rosalie

Today pharmacy students have more career options than ever before in the history of our profession. A career in academic pharmacy is only one such opportunity, but it is one that allows an individual to have a "continuous touch" on the future. Most pharmacy educators have had role models and mentors that helped them make a choice about advancing their education or completing residency or fellowship training. I too have had role models at various times in my career; first as a student, and later as a pharmacist and educator.

One of my role models when I was a student at The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy came back into my life after an absence of many years. After becoming dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), I was surveying a list of individuals whose education began with prepharmacy education at Chicago's Navy Pier which in the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s was a part of the University of Illinois. On that list of former students and graduates of the College was the name of Jules B. LaPidus, PhD. As I saw his name, I just said "Ah", and I thought to myself - he was one of the best educators that I ever had along with Hal Wolf, PhD (currently a faculty member and former dean, University of Utah). I quickly noted Dr. LaPidus' address.

After I graduated from The Ohio State University and Dr. LaPidus left the College of Pharmacy to become Dean of the Graduate School at OSU, I lost track of him and our paths diverted. Dr. LaPidus' career later led him from Columbus, Ohio to Washington, DC and to the position of President of the Council of Graduate Schools.

Dr. LaPidus was an outstanding teacher who made medicinal chemistry exciting. He held your attention in the classroom and walked you through a multitude of chemical structures with only the chalk on the blackboards as his multimedia. He helped you understand why knowledge of medicinal chemistry was important to understanding how medications worked in humans. I can still see him standing directly in front of the class with his arms crossed and articulately speaking to each student, at the same time, about chemical structure and function. He was an imposing person!

This past May Dr. LaPidus, a graduate of our college and the son of a Chicago pharmacist, was the UIC College of Pharmacy convocation speaker for the Class of 2000. In a year of transition between two millenniums, Dr. LaPidus spoke to students in the ballroom at Navy Pier where approximately 50 years ago he studied as a prepharmacy student. Included in his words to the "new" pharmacists was some history about the past and much more about the roles they would play in the future.

Recently Dr. LaPidus returned to UIC to participate in the College's evaluation of our graduate education programs. This was Dr. LaPidus' first consultantship after his retirement this summer from the Council of Graduate Schools. He was giving back his knowledge of graduate education to make our programs better. After a day of presentations and discussions, the day ended with a dinner hosted by the Dean of the UIC Graduate College. In attendance was our chancellor Dr. Sylvia Manning, an English scholar, who told Dr. LaPidus how much she appreciated his excellent educational articles that helped guide graduate education nationwide over the past decade. When I told her that Dr. LaPidus was a pharmacist and medicinal chemist, she could hardly believe it. She was very sure that his academic "pedigree" was in the humanities!! I told her that Dr. LaPidus was a Renaissance man - one who could discuss English literature with university scholars, sip the best brandies, play the oboe, and discuss medicinal chemistry with pharmacy students. This is the impact that Dr. LaPidus has had on me as a teacher - he educated students and others by not only what he discussed but also how he discussed it - with grace and elegance.

Although I may never be the outstanding teacher and role model that Dr. LaPidus has been, I believe that if I could only be half as effective as he has been, I would be a good educator. Thank you Dr. LaPidus for being a role model for many in pharmaceutical education. Please enjoy your retirement, but continue to work with colleges such as ours to push our graduate programs forward in this new millennium!

Rosalie Sagraves

College of Pharmacy, University of illinois at Chicago, MIC 874, 833 South Wood Street, Chicago IL 60612-7230