JOHNSON CITY Higher education leaders from across the state came to the James H. Quillen College of Medicine at East Tennessee State University Friday, Jan. 18, for the formal dedication ceremony of Stanton-Gerber Hall, the new $36 million basic sciences building.
The building is named in honor of ETSU President Dr. Paul E. Stanton Jr. and Dr. Carl J. Gerber, director of the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The facility will house administrative offices, academic units, research laboratories and classrooms for the medical school.
The dedication of Stanton-Gerber Hall is a significant milestone for ETSU in that it will bring the entire medical school operation to one campus, where our faculty and students will now be within walking distance of each other, said Dr. Ronald D. Franks, ETSU dean of medicine and vice president for health affairs.
Groundbreaking for Stanton-Gerber Hall took place in June 1998. The building is approximately 183,000 square feet and was designed by Gresham, Smith and Partners in Nashville. Construction was done by Dawson Building Contractors Inc. of Rainbow City, Ala.
Stanton became the eighth president of ETSU on Jan. 1, 1997, after serving as dean of the Quillen College of Medicine and vice president for health affairs since 1989. A native of Atlanta, Stanton earned his B.A. in chemistry from Emory University in 1965 and was awarded his M.D. degree from the Medical College of Georgia in 1969. From 1969-75, he was involved with residency training in general and vascular surgery. For the next 10 years, he practiced and taught general and vascular surgery at Georgia Baptist Medical Center in Atlanta. In 1985, he and his wife, Nancy, and three children Eric, Ryan, and Shelley moved to Johnson City where Stanton assumed the position of chief of the Division of Peripheral Vascular Surgery at ETSU. In 1986, he was appointed chair of surgery and in 1988 was named interim dean of the College of Medicine and vice president of the Division of Health Sciences. A year later, he assumed the senior administrative post on a permanent basis.
Gerber was appointed director of the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Nov. 29, 1992, by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. Gerber began his career with the VA as chief of neurology at the Durham VA Medical Center in North Carolina. After serving as chief of staff at the VA medical centers in Tacoma, Wash., and Des Moines, Iowa, he served as medical center director at the VA medical centers in Ft. Meade, S.D., and Cleveland.
He holds a B.S. degree from the University of Detroit and attended Washington University, St. Louis, where he earned his Ph.D. in neurophysiology. He then earned his M.D. degree at Duke University School of Medicine. He completed post-graduate training in psychiatry and neurology and is board certified in psychiatry.
The ETSU Quillen College of Medicine was created by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1974 and admitted its first class of students in 1978. The school has been nationally ranked by U.S.News & World Report among the top institutions for rural medicine, primary care, and family practice training. ETSU celebrated the awarding of its 1,000th M.D. degree in May 2001.
Stanton-Gerber Hall is located on the College of Medicine campus on Maple Avenue behind the medical library and beside the Mountain Home Post Office.
For more information, contact ETSU university relations at (423) 439-4317.