Crist leaves MU medical school; Churchill fills in temporarily
The popular dean of medical school will leave after eight years.
Published Sept. 22, 2008
After eight years as dean of the School of Medicine, William Crist will depart to become vice president for health affairs at the University of Arizona. Radiology department chairman Robert Churchill said he will serve as interim dean until a full-time replacement can be found, which will take at least a year.
First-year medical student Kasey Kimball said she was curious what the effect of the change would be on the teaching style at the school because it recently adopted a method called problem-based learning. This technique focuses on group-based learning as opposed to more traditional lectures.
"I hope his replacement continues to improve the process as needed," she said. Second-year medical student Katie Myers said she felt Crist deserved a change of position.
"Eight years is a long time to be a dean," she said. "The changes he has made are tremendous."
Members of the medical school staff said they're sad to see Crist go.
"He's been a great fundraiser, and it's a shame we're losing him in the middle of these great building projects he initiated," medical professor emeritus Linda Spollen said.
Crist helped develop plans for the University Hospital Patient Care Tower and the UM Health Care Orthopedic Institute, both of which are under construction.
Robert Blake, of the family and community medicine department, said Crist did an excellent job of fundraising and delegating authority.
"I'm sorry to see him go," he said. "He's going to be hard to replace."
Medical school associate dean Michael Hosokawa said Crist has left his mark on the School of Medicine.
"He has left a legacy of new buildings and a greatly enhanced endowment that will go on forever to support the medical school," he said.
Hosokawa said he believes Crist will take the University of Arizona's medical school to new heights. Hosokawa said he has the utmost confidence in Churchill.
"He will be an excellent leader until the right person can be found," he said.
Crist graduated from the MU School of Medicine in 1969 and is an expert on pediatric cancer. He served as the director of pediatric hematology and oncology at the University of Alabama from 1976 to 1985 and also served as the chair of pediatric hematology and oncology at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He then became dean of the MU School of Medicine in 2000. During his years as dean of the MU medical school, he was able to increase the size of the medical school faculty to more than 650.
Churchill graduated from the Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago in 1972. He completed his postgraduate studies at the Loyola University Medical Center, specializing in radiology. At the University Hospital he served as the chairman of the radiology department from 1987 to 1998 and again from 2002 until his appointment to replace Crist. He served as interim dean of the medical school between 1998 and 2002.
Churchill was awarded the Gwilym Lodwick Distinguished Professorship in Radiology in 2006, named for the founding chair of the medical school's radiology department. He worked in cancer research during his career at MU.
"We will miss Dr. Crist's visionary leadership and his ability to recruit some of the finest faculty in the world to the medical school," Churchill said.
