SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
MSC09 5040
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
somadmin@salud.unm.edu
Donations are needed to fund the construction of the Memorial Garden. Please contribute to the fund by going to SOM Faculty Memorial Garden #202491.
To add more information or to submit remembrances,
please contact:
somadmin@salud.unm.edu
Beginning in July 2014 the UNM SOM will be celebrating the 50th Anniversary of its first entering Medical Student Class. The overarching theme of the Anniversary celebration is “Its All About the People”- the patients, students, and faculty involved in medical education, patient care and research. This theme acknowledges the central role of UNM SOM faculty involved in educational dialogue with our students, as the students gather the knowledge, values, and commitment to the patients that they will serve. In recognition of our faculty , and remembering those faculty who have died during this first half century, a memorial design is being commissioned that will immortalize those values espoused by the UNMSOM in the education of today’s and tomorrow’s physicians.
Faculty Memorial - Night Render by Christine Williams
The education of our medical students involves the creativity of understanding the science of health and disease, the creativity of contributing new learning through research, and the creativity of impacting health in the presence of disease through treatment of patients. The selected design for this memorial celebrates People- the patients, the students, and the faculty who make up this Educational Family,- through the creativity of landscape sculpture.
The competition jury of eight professionals (listed below) was selected from UNM and the community and chaired by Roger Schluntz, former Dean of the UNM School of Architecture.
A state-wide competition was conducted and from the 20-25 initial designs, three finalists were identified:
Javan Chapple
Ben Ortega
Christine Williams
In addition, the following submissions (designers) were awarded “Honorable Mention” designation:
Andrew Bernard
Meredith Ellis
Through a subsequent re-working and formal presentation process, Ms Christine Williams was selected as the winner with her design entitled, “The People’s Heartbeat” which was developed in association with a design team from Garrett Smith, Ltd. The heart-beat imagery is conveyed with tubes-of-light arranged throughout a serpentine bench which reposes within a landscaped garden which invites interaction (pictures attached). The name of each deceased faculty member will be engraved on one of the tubes, symbolic that each of the honorees was a “point of light”. Located at the south end of the Health Sciences “Canyon Garden”, within the” Sculpture Garden of Healing” of the North Campus, this memorial captures the imagination of children through grandparents in a comforting celebration of People and the Human Body. The selection committee was unanimous in its enthusiasm for this unusual landscape sculpture which will be a destination for visitors of all ages throughout the years to come.
Recognition of deceased faculty by engraved name as well as further information concerning the celebration of faculty contributions over both these fifty years and for years to come will be accessible through a complementary web-based memorial containing departmental affiliations ,historical information, photographs, personal recollections and professional details about the deceased faculty. The faculty memorial website will be unveiled in the next few weeks.