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THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 2021
“From Steel Mills to Stethoscopes: A History of the Birmingham Medical Profession”
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Clockwise from upper left: Dr. Tinsley Harrison’s “Harrison’s Principles of Internal Medicine” remains the single-most-used and best-selling internal medicine text in the world; The Alabama Legislature chartered the Hillman Hospital in 1897; Dr. Champ Lyons became the first full-time chair of the Department of Surgery at Hillman Hospital; Dr. Kathryn Honea, IVF program director, UAB Hospital; St. Vincent’s Hospital, Birmingham’s first general hospital.
‘A Full Life’ McCallum Remembered for Contributions to UAB, City of Vestavia Hills
By Rubin E. Grant
M
urry Bartow had a front row seat when the UAB football program started at the NCAA Division III level in 1991. Bartow was an assistant coach on the basketball team under his late father, Gene Bartow, the head coach and the Blazers’ athletics director at the time. Charles “Scotty” McCallum was the UAB president.
‘Without his visionary leadership and dedication, UAB would not be the worldclass institution it is today.’
‘Medical Giant’
UAB PRESIDENT RAY L. WATTS
Local Journalist and Author Pens History of Birmingham Medical Community By Emily Williams-Robertshaw
F
rom its beginnings as a rough and tumble coal mining community, Birmingham has grown into a polished medical community nationally known for its work to advance medical knowledge. A new book by local author and reporter Lynn Edge, “From Steel Mills to Stethoscopes: A History of the
Birmingham Medical Profession,” recounts that transformation. “I was really surprised by how intertwined this state was and how it all worked together to create this medical giant,” Edge said. “I tried to write the book from looking at the history of the area as the backdrop to the story of the medicine of the area.” According to Edge, the book, published in November 2020, has been the
largest undertaking of her career as a journalist and author. A Samford University graduate, she began her writing career in 1968 as a reporter for The Birmingham News. She earned an Associated Press news writing award for her coverage of a sniper shooting in Bessemer. She went on to become religion editor before transitioning into freelance
See MEDICAL GIANT, page 10
Gene Bartow and McCallum had a special bond, Bartow said. “Dr. McCallum was a great friend of our family and he and my dad were incredibly close,” Bartow said. “They were heavily involved in starting football at UAB.” Gene Bartow once wrote that McCallum was “the best college president any athletic director could ever have.” McCallum died Jan. 16 of natural causes at
See McCALLUM, page 11
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