Research/Academic Showcase
Setting a Strong Foundation
The
day he arrived in Lubbock in July 1972, Anthony B. Way, M.D., Ph.D., along
with his wife Barbara H. Way, M.D., he
knew they were in for an interesting future.
The Ways, both founding faculty members of the School of Medicine, arrived a month before the first medical students came to the new Texas Tech School of Medicine.
“It was a dynamic time,” Way said. “We all knew we were starting from scratch.
Drane Hall was an old dorm, the classroom was the dining hall and the anatomy room was the old kitchen.”
Way would become a part of history, serving as a professor in the School of Medicine for more than 33 years. He retired in November, but not before serving in numerous positions and building many of the programs that are now in place for a new generation of students.
He began his Texas Tech School of Medicine career as a professor with the Department of Environmental Health and Zoological Medicine. He was chairman and professor of the Department of Occupational and Preventive Medicine, which would later merge with the Department of Family and Community Medicine. Way also served as the founding residency director of General Preventive Medicine and assistant dean for Graduate and Undergraduate Medical Education.
Way has served as director of Public Health for the Lubbock City Health
Department, medical director of the Preventive Medicine Center at University
Medical Center, graduate faculty of the Department of Anthropology
at Texas Tech University, and in numerous other positions.
Mike Ragain, M.D., chairman of the Department of Family and Community Medicine, says through his early work, Way made the school the success that it is today.
“He served as a leader early on and continued to be a productive faculty member until his recent retirement. Dr. Way always offered wise counsel and even if you did not want to hear the advice, he was almost always correct,” Ragain says.
Way and his wife recently moved to Dallas to help their children, Matthew and Sarah, who are both physicians in emergency medicine. The Ways will help care for their three grandchildren. “We were needed, and I guess you can call it the circle of life,” Way said. “Barb was seven months pregnant and we had our 2-year-old son when we first came to speak to Dr. John Buessler about coming to the new medical school. Now it is their turn.”
Bernard Mittemeyer, M.D., interim dean of the School of Medicine at the
Health Sciences Center, says Way’s leadership helped provide a solid
foundation that is in place for the institution today.
“We will miss Tony’s expertise, candor and energy,” Mittemeyer says. “He is a true pioneer of the School of Medicine and this institution.”
Mittemeyer adds that Way’s special focus was on preventive health care education, poison control education and the establishment of the medical school’s Dean’s Grand Rounds program.
“To see the continued growth of the Health Sciences Center is gratifying to me,” Way says. “It shows that we are still on the move.”
- Suzanna Cisneros Martinez