Dr. Alan Blum

Passion and Philanthropy Go Hand In Hand

Sincejoining The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences in 1999, Dr. Alan Blum has been a champion for education, advocacy and research in health promotion, especially in reducing the devastating impact of cigarette smoking and the outsized influence of the tobacco industry on society.

Blum is the first holder of the Gerald Leon Wallace, MD, Endowed Chair in Family Medicine, established by University of Alabama alumna Celia Wallace in memory of her late husband, a family physician and founder of Springhill Hospital in Mobile, Ala. Celia Wallace, who was recently inducted into the Alabama Healthcare Hall of Fame, encouraged Blum to continue combating the tobacco industry, which he began doing as a medical student at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta in the mid-1970s, and welcomed his founding of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society (CSTS) soon after his arrival at UA.

The Center’s website (https://csts.ua.edu) provides researchers, journalists and the public alike access to portions of Blum’s collection of more than half a million items about the tobacco industry, cigarette marketing and the anti-smoking movement, which he has amassed over nearly five decades. It is the largest collection at any university in the world of original documents, photographs, books, shareholder reports, advertising ephemera, political cartoons and news coverage of the tobacco issue over the past century. Through a long standing collaboration with professors Robert Riter and Steven MacCall of the UA School of Library and Information Studies, Blum has employed more than 30 graduate students in digitizing and cataloging tens of thousands of items for the CSTS website.

He has also mentored more than 20 undergraduate student research projects in the Catherine J. Randall Research Scholars Program, several of which have been presented at the National Conference on Tobacco or Health, the American College Health Association and the Southern College Health Association. “The generosity with which Dr. Blum provides cutting-edge research opportunities for the brilliant students in RRS is an inspiration to faculty everywhere,” noted Randall, a distinguished University of Alabama alumna and director from 1978 to 2004 of the nationally renowned UA Computer-Based Honors Program, which was renamed in tribute to her in 2018. “His mentorship has been transformational in the professional lives of these students, and the quality of their research skyrockets under his leadership.”

An article about CSTS by Riter and the Center’s former longtime collection manager Kevin Bailey, “Exhibitions as Public Health Interventions,” was published in 2021 in the journal American Behavioral Scientist, a theme issue saluting “Exhibitions of Impact.” The Pharos, the journal of the national medical honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha, recently lauded the CSTS website: “The curated exhibitions offered by the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society are an excellent example of how social history, in this case pertaining to one of our most significant public health problems, can be presented online in an enlightening, educational and entertaining way.”

CSTS exhibitions in 2022 included, “Covering Cancer? How magazines promote cancer research. . .and cigarettes” (http:// csts.ua.edu/covers/) and “Tobacco Heart: Cigarette Smoking and Cardiovascular Health” (https://csts.ua.edu/heart/). Blum has also created tobacco related exhibitions for museums and libraries, including the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Spring, Maryland, the Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library at UA and the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas.

“We’ve made undeniable progress in reducing smoking in the US-from over 40% of the population in 1964 when the first Surgeon General’s Report on smoking and health was released by Alabamian Dr. Luther Terry to less than 15% today,” Blum said. “However, upwards of 35 million Americans still smoke cigarettes, which remain the leading preventable cause of premature death and disease. Nearly half a million Americans die each year from smoking.”

Blum is grateful for the philanthropic support of a long–time family physician colleague and friend, Dr. Rick Richards, who cofounded the national physicians health promotion group DOC (Doctors Ought to Care) with Blum in 1977. CSTS also holds Richards’s own early research and medical activism to counter tobacco use, alcohol abuse, poor nutrition, teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

“It’s important for health promotion research and advocacy efforts that predate the internet be preserved and made accessible,” said Richards. “Many things that I learned and experienced during the earlier half of my medical career have led to my success during the latter half. It makes sense to support a unique historical resource on physician-led efforts to counteract the promotion of lethal lifestyles so that each new generation doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel.”

In addition to his internationally recognized efforts to help reduce tobacco use and promotion, Blum cares for patients at the CCHS operated University Medical Center, teaches residents and medical students in the clinic, contributes commentaries and original research articles to leading medical journals and hosts a monthly Art of Medicine Rounds that he and CCHS medical library director Nelle Williams started in 2012 (https://cchs. ua.edu/on-rounds-2020/the-art-of-medicine-rounds-toucheshearts/).

We can only estimate the number of hours Blum has poured into his life’s work, but his passionate commitment reaches far beyond CCHS. Not only does he dedicate his time and expertise to the tobacco center, but he and his wife, Doris, have also provided a significant level of personal philanthropic support. The College is grateful for his contributions to the field of medicine and to our community.

By Leslie Zganjar

Maren & Gabriel Pugh

Donors

Pugh Family Creates Endowed Support Fund for Brewer-Porch Children’s Center

Children’s Center after meeting Misha Greer, a counselor who worked there. The center is operated by UA’s College of Community Health Sciences and provides treatment programs for Alabama’s special-needs children, adolescents and their families.

“I remember bonding with the children there and the immediate sense of urgency I felt to help in any way I could,” Pugh said. She became very involved, donating her time, money and items to the children there. The first time she took her son with her, he was about 12 years old. “Shortly after he and I arrived home that evening, Gabe came downstairs holding the Xbox asking if he could give it to the kids so they could have something to play with. He did get to donate not only his Xbox but all the games the staff would allow,” she said.

Not being able to visit Brewer-Porch Children’s Center during COVID-19 is what inspired Maren Pugh to create the endowed support fund. The Gabriel Glover Pugh Brewer Porch Endowed Support Fund will provide funding for discretionary support to enhance the mission of the center and provide basic care needs and other items that will foster a nurturing and caring environment for children. The endowed support fund is the first, and currently the only privately funded endowment, to support the center.

Graduates

of The University of Alabama, Maren and Gene Pugh have been residents of Tuscaloosa since they married in 1999. Maren is a mortgage banker and Gene is a firefighter with Tuscaloosa Fire and Rescue. Their son, Gabe, graduated from UA in December 2022 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He was also a student athlete, a long snapper, for the Alabama Crimson Tide football team.

“God blessed us with a son that not only is healthy but humble and with a heart for others,” Maren Pugh shared. “Gabe has always had high goals and the self-discipline to achieve them.”

As a senior at Northridge High School in Tuscaloosa, Gabe Pugh received the John “Bubba” Trotman “Service Above Self” award from the Montgomery Rotary Club while participating in the AL/MS All-Star football game. “Being there for Gabe during his endeavors is what has made our relationship strong. He has made me a better person,” Maren Pugh said.

In December 2013, Pugh was introduced to Brewer-Porch

Pugh chose to name the support fund in honor of her son as she wants to instill in him a legacy of giving. “Although Gabe grew up in the exact opposite environment that the children at Brewer-Porch have, he has overcome many challenges, as well as proven the many people that have told him ‘He can’t’ wrong. I hope the children at Brewer-Porch will be able to find inspiration in adversity, laugh at the word can’t and never accept defeat.”

Pugh believes keeping The University of Alabama in the top spot on a very long list of academic and athletic distinctions starts with the future of the University, the state and the children. “I truly wish that everyone who cares about the University could visit BrewerPorch as they would not only be inspired to help and support these children but fill a hole in their hearts they never knew was there.

We did not name this endowment after our son to spotlight his achievements. We just chose to give a little so that the children could have a chance at life.”