An endowed professorship will be established at the College of Pharmacy by the three children of Charles R. Walgreen Jr., retired chairman of the Walgreen Co.
The professorship will be funded by a pledge of $1.5 million by Leslie Ann Walgreen Pratt of Estes Park, Colo.; James A. and Victoria D. Walgreen of Woodstock, Ill.; and Charles R. III (now chairman and CEO of the national drugstore chain) and Kathleen B. Walgreen of Lake Forest, Ill. The gift is part of the University’s $1-billion Campaign for Michigan, the largest fund raising project ever mounted by a public university.
The professorship—to be named the Charles R. Walgreen Jr. Professorship, pending approval by the Regents—will assist the College in its efforts to attract and retain faculty with internationally recognized expertise.
Early in his career, Charles R. Walgreen Jr. became involved in pharmaceutical education. In 1950, he co-authored The General Report of the Pharmaceutical Survey, 1946–49, which guided pharmacy education in the United States for the next 25 years. He received a pharmaceutical chemist degree from the U-M in 1928.
“Since his student days at the U-M, Charles R. Walgreen Jr. has been shaping the future of the College of Pharmacy and the pharmacy profession,” said College of Pharmacy Dean Ara G. Paul. “As a thoughtful adviser, astute counselor, and vocal advocate, he has made a lasting impact on the quality and direction of pharmacy education.”
Walgreen’s gifts to the College since the 1950s have helped establish it as one of the nation’s top centers for pharmaceutical education and research, Paul said. Members of its faculty have won seven Ebert Prizes, the highest recognition given for pharmaceutical research. Another received the George Hitchings Award for Innovative Methods in Drug Discovery and Design, named for the 1988 Nobel laureate in medicine.
