UNC Dedicates Bondurant Hall
Posted on April 24, 2006UNC’s School of Medicine dedicated Bondurant Hall on Friday in honor of Dr. Stuart Bondurant ’50, a former dean of the school.
“This is a surpassing honor,” Bondurant said. “There are people who laid the groundwork for this great institution whose legacy we have built upon. It is this legacy that empowered this place to become what it is.”
Bondurant served as dean from 1979 to 1994 and also as interim dean from 1996-97. Prior to the ceremony, Bondurant Hall was called the Medical Sciences Research Building, known generally as the MSRB. Comprised mostly of laboratories, it was the first facility built primarily for research at the medical school. Approved in 1959 and completed in 1962, the MSRB contained 55,000 square feet of space, costing $1.3 million to build.
In 2001, a decision was made to convert the building to office and classroom space. Now expanded to 106,000 square feet, Bondurant Hall encompasses the medical school, the department of allied health services and its eight divisions, the dean’s office, the school’s alumni affairs office and the Office of Student Affairs for Medical Education.
Dr. William L. Roper, dean of the medical school, vice chancellor for medical affairs at UNC and CEO of the UNC Health Care System, said, “Thanks to the people and leaders of North Carolina for their support of the Higher Education Bond Program, this building … will serve as the entrance way for the ‘town square’ of our medical and allied health education facilities. And with the renovation of a food services area and extensive work on Berryhill Hall scheduled to begin later this year, Bondurant Hall will now welcome prospective students, visitors and alumni to our mini-campus of health facilities.”
While serving as dean, Bondurant worked with leaders and agencies of the state to improve health care for North Carolinians. He was a founder of the N.C. Institute of Medicine and served as vice chair of its board of directors from 1984 until 2005. He served as chairman of the Governor’s Commission on the Reduction of Infant Mortality (1989-96) and as vice chair of the North Carolina Healthy Start Foundation (1989-2005). In addition, Bondurant was instrumental in the formation of the N.C. Biotechnology Center and served for four years as chair of its board of directors.
Bondurant is currently serving as interim executive vice president and executive dean of Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr. John J. DeGioia, president of Georgetown University, noted the fervor with which Bondurant holds Georgetown’s Jesuit tradition of cura personalis – caring for the whole person.
“He ensures we are educating – in an integrated way – doctors, nurses, and biomedical scientists who are knowledgeable, skillful, ethical, compassionate, sensitive, and dedicated to meeting the health needs of our society,” DeGioia said. “In short, he has helped us produce health care professionals of great character.”
Bondurant’s achievements as a physician, scholar, and administrator have been recognized internationally. He has served with distinction in the highest leadership positions of some of the nation’s most distinguished scientific and professional organizations.
Bondurant has been an adviser to a number of federal agencies, including Health and Human Services, Defense, Veterans Affairs, the NIH, NASA, the US Air Force, and the FDA. He has served as president of the American College of Physicians, chair of the American Association of Medical Colleges, and acting president of the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, a Master of the American College of Physicians and a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London and of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
“Dr. Bondurant has received many honors and awards throughout his illustrious career,” said Chancellor James Moeser. “But our best insight of Stuart is gained perhaps from knowing that he views his greatest honor to be awarding more than 3,000 medical degrees, nearly 2,500 of them here at UNC.”
BJAC, an architectural firm from Raleigh, served as the principal designer on the construction project whose facade was based on the original design of MacNider Hall.
