Brief History of the
McWhorter School of Pharmacy

The Samford University campus of approximately four-hundred (400) acres features Georgian-Colonial architecture. Located in the picturesque mountainous area of Shades Valley in the city of Homewood, Alabama, the Samford University campus is less than six miles from the heart of Birmingham, Alabama’s largest city and the state’s industrial, business, financial and cultural center. Birmingham is also home to the nation’s fourth largest medical center complex. Samford University, founded in 1841 as Howard College, is the largest privately supported and fully accredited institution of higher learning in Alabama. In the fall of 1957, Howard College relocated from the East Lake area of Birmingham to its present site. Official elevation to university status under the new name, Samford University, occurred November 9, 1965.

Robert I. Ingalls Hall was constructed in 1957 and was the second major building on the present campus. Ingalls Hall has four floors and approximately 41,000 net utilizable square feet. The building was shared by the School of Pharmacy and various other academic and support units until 1983 when all of Ingalls Hall was dedicated to the School of Pharmacy.

In 1996, Samford University alumnus Clayton McWhorter, gave a gift in excess of $10 million to support the educational programs of the School of Pharmacy. The school was thus named the McWhorter School of Pharmacy to honor the benefactor. Extensive renovation was undertaken in Ingalls Hall in 1996 and is currently on-going. This includes the construction of an addition to the existing building. This addition added valuable classroom and faculty office space.

In August of 1994 the school admitted its first class of entry-level doctor of pharmacy candidates. After this group completed the four year program in 1998, the school’s accreditation changed from a bachelor of science in pharmacy to that of a doctor of pharmacy. In June of 2005, the McWhorter School of Pharmacy received renewed accreditation of the doctoral program from the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education. The accreditation is for six years, which is the maximum approval period.

After fifteen years as chief administrator of the school, Dr. Joseph Dean retired. Dr. Bob Bryant, who was previously the dean of Ohio Northern’s pharmacy school, became the school’s eighth dean on August 1, 2006. His goals include furthering the school’s position as an excellent academic center, evolving the curriculum and reaching out to the pharmacy community and Samford supporters.