Architect's rendering of Mason C. Andrews Hall
NORFOLK—EVMS will rename Fairfax Hall Mason C. Andrews Hall to honor the late medical pioneer and prime mover behind the medical school's creation, EVMS president Harry T. Lester announced during a ceremony Thursday honoring Andrews.
The school has also created an annual Mason C. Andrews Citizen-Scholar Award for an exemplary EVMS medical student who epitomizes the values and ideals promulgated by Andrews.
The announcements came during a ceremony in the packed McCombs Auditorium where hundreds of doctors, faculty members, students, staff and city leaders gathered to pay tribute to a man whose efforts not only gave birth to EVMS, but also reshaped much of Norfolk.
"Dr. Andrews touched the lives of many individuals and many organizations," Lester said. "But I think it is fair to say that EVMS held a special place in his heart. I know he held a special place in ours."
Mason C. Andrews, M.D.
Andrews, who passed away in the fall of 2006 at the age of 87, was a pioneering obstetrician who pushed EVMS to the forefront of reproductive medicine.
Andrews "was a giant in medicine," said Dean and Provost Gerald J. Pepe, Ph.D. "Not just a giant locally — a giant on the national and international stages."
Andrews' longtime friend and colleague Howard W. Jones, M.D., a professor of obstetrics and gynecology and co-founder of the EVMS Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine, reflected on Andrews' relentless drive and his passion for excellence and community service.
Andrews believed that "each of us should leave this world a little better than when we entered it, Jones said. "By that test, Mason was superb."
Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Andrews earned his undergraduate degree from Princeton University in 1940 and his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. After completing a tour in the U.S. Navy and finishing his residency at Johns Hopkins in the early 1950s, he returned to Norfolk and began talking about the need to create a medical school in the region.
Andrews and a group of visionary community leaders worked tirelessly to lobby for official sanction and raised $17 million required to establish the medical school. In 1973, EVMS opened its doors.
"Try to imagine the vision and optimism it would have taken to look at Norfolk, Virginia, in the years immediately following World War II, and find yourself saying, 'We should have a medical school,' " said Lester. "Moreover, imagine the wisdom, energy and tenaciousness it must have taken to turn that grand vision into reality."
As the first chairman of the EVMS Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Andrews propelled the young medical school to the forefront in reproductive medicine when he recruited Jones and his late wife, Georgeanna S. Jones, M.D., from Johns Hopkins Medical School.
The trio launched groundbreaking research resulted in the Dec. 28, 1981, birth of Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the nation's first child conceived through in-vitro fertilization. Andrews delivered Carr. Continuing success in in-vitro fertilization led to the creation in 1983 of the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine.
Alfred Abuhamad, M.D., chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology, noted that Andrews' cutting-edge research spanned six decades, beginning with a study published in 1940 when Andrews was just 21 and continuing until the his final year, when he was 87.
"His clear vision, his tenacity and persistence on doing the right thing has laid the foundation for a great medical school and an ob-gyn department that achieved national and international distinction," said Abuhamad.
Andrews also had an enormous impact on the rest of the community. Elected to the City Council in Norfolk 1974, he served as mayor from 1992 to 1994 and his efforts at urban renewal helped spark the revival that has transformed Norfolk.
Andrews' death garnered international attention, with obituaries running as far away as New Delhi, India, focusing on his role in delivering the nation's first test-tube baby.
Fairfax Hall, which will soon be renovated, will become Andrews Hall after completion in December 2008. The naming of the building and the creation of the Mason C. Andrews Citizen-Scholar Award are meant as enduring testaments to Andrews' accomplishments.
Abuhamad noted Andrews' key role in transforming a relative medical backwater into the vibrant hub of medical institutions that draw patients from surrounding states.
"Two-thousand, six hundred medical student graduates, 152 fully trained Obstetrics & Gynecology residents of whom 54 are still practicing in Hampton Roads today," Abuhamad said. "The legacy and the vision of Dr. Mason Andrews live on."
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