The late governor fought hard for the tax – determined that Arkansas needed a state-of-the-art medical campus – and the medical center, of which his son says the two-term governor was immensely proud. Construction of the new hospital moved the campus across town to its current location, leading some to refer to McMath as the Father of Modern-Day UAMS.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences honored McMath posthumously Nov. 16 with the endowment of a new professorship in the UAMS Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health. The Governor Sidney S. McMath Professorship in Obesity Prevention was created from settlement funds obtained by the McMath Woods Law Firm in a health-related, multi-state law suit.

"This professorship honors a man with deep vision," said UAMS Chancellor I. Dodd Wilson, M.D., pointing to McMath’s advocacy for the cigarette tax to improve health a half-century ago. "And it honors the College of Public Health in its mission to improve the health of all Arkansans."

"We will live up to the expectations of the McMath family and the McMath Woods Law Firm."

Phillip McMath said his father saw a cigarette tax to fund construction of a hospital was a national way to compensate for the damage to health done by smoking.

Read More...