Texas Gov. Price Daniel is shown signing House Bill 9. With him are (left to right) Sen. Henry B. Gonzalez, Sen. Rudolph A. Weinert, Dr. James P. Hollers, Dr. John M. Smith Jr., Rep. R.L. Strickland, Dr. John L. Matthews and Dr. L. Bonham Jones.
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Fifty years ago this month, on April 29, 1959, Gov. Price Daniel signed House Bill 9, the legislation that established the South Texas Medical School. It was the first branch of what one day would become The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, a comprehensive health sciences university with medical, nursing, dental, graduate biomedical science and health professions schools.

Looking on at the governor’s desk that day were two individuals who played principal roles in obtaining a medical school for San Antonio: John M. Smith Jr., M.D., who led a Bexar County Medical Society committee that studied the city’s health needs, and James P. Hollers, D.D.S., a Chamber of Commerce president and chairman of the board of the San Antonio Medical Foundation. These men represented the hundreds of medical and community leaders who sought a medical school for San Antonio and intensified that quest in the 1940s and 1950s. A host of factors, including the fact San Antonio was America’s largest city without a medical school, supported the bill’s introduction and passage in the 56th Legislature.

In honor of the historic signing, the Texas House and Senate proclaimed that April 29 is UT Health Science Center San Antonio Day. Bexar County and the city of San Antonio also issued congratulatory proclamations.

Major health science center in Texas and in the world
Five decades after its birth, the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $668 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $16.3 billion biosciences and health care sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $36 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. There are more than 25,600 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and other health professionals), many of whom practice in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, dentistry and many other fields.

Health Science Center presidents led its success
The Health Science Center has developed under the leadership of three distinguished presidents: Frank Harrison, M.D., Ph.D. (1972-1985); John P. Howe III, M.D. (1985-2000); and Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D. (2000-2009). A new president to succeed Dr. Cigarroa, who became the UT System chancellor in February, will be announced later this year.

The UT Health Science Center congratulates its faculty, staff, students and many thousands of graduates. Additionally, it thanks its numerous community, university and military partners, including the San Antonio Medical Foundation, for their remarkable collaboration and support.