W.E. Upjohn and his pill that actually dissolved when it was swallowed set Kalamazoo on the pharmaceutical and biomedical path to the future. Now the Western Michigan University School of Medicine is being named for the Upjohn Co. founder.
The future home of the school in downtown Kalamazoo will be called the W.E. Upjohn campus. The 330,000 square-foot building off the northwest corner of Lovell and Portage streets, once part of the Upjohn Co. campus and subsequently owned by Pharmacia, Pfizer, and MPI Research, has been donated for use by the new medical school.
Renovation is to begin this summer and is scheduled to be completed by mid-2014, in time for the first class of medical students to enter the school in August 2014. Extensive renovation and slight expansion of the facility is planned.
The school of medicine is a partnership involving the University and Kalamazoo’s two teaching hospitals, Borgess Health and Bronson Healthcare. Dr. Hal B. Jenson, dean of the med school says plans for accreditation are moving forward as expected.
The transition of the Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies to the Western Michigan University School of Medicine also has been completed and two new leadership positions in the medical school filled. They are: William Fales, M.D., assistant dean for clinical applications, and Charles Zeller Jr., M.D., assistant dean for continuing medical education.
William U. Parfet, chairman and CEO of MPI Research in Mattawan, says his great grandfather moved in 1885, from Hastings to Kalamazoo to start The Upjohn Co.
"The first piece of land he purchased was located on Lovell Street," Parfet says. "This property represents the beginning of the greatly expanded Upjohn campus, which included this building throughout the life of the company. I’m proud of that. It only makes sense to our family that this would be the headquarters for the WMU School of Medicine."
Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave Media
Source: Laura Eller, Western Michigan University School of Medicine
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