Smith To Be Invested as Recipient of the Howells Endowed Chair in Psychiatry

April 29, 2002 (Little Rock, AR)   G. Richard Smith, M.D., will formally be installed on April 30 as the third Marie Wilson Howells Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry of the College of Medicine at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) in Little Rock. The academic ceremony will be held at 4:00 pm. in the Jo Ellen Ford  Auditorium on the 1st floor of the Reynolds Center on Aging on the UAMS campus at the corner of Elm and 7^th Streets – near the Pine/Cedar exit of I-630 in Little Rock.  Dr. Smith was appointed chair of the department in 2001.

The Marie Wilson Howells Professor and Chair is named for an Arkansas philanthropist who in 1979 left to the university a trust of nearly three million dollars. The gift contained the provision that the proceeds of the endowment augment the Department of Psychiatry within the college.  She also left an equal amount for the development of psychology in other branches of the university.

Ms. Howells, who lived in New York for many years, was proud of her Arkansas heritage and stressed that her assets be returned to her home state.  She had a deep interest in the intricacies of the human mind as well as a profound concern for higher education and believed that Arkansans should not have to leave the state for medical treatment.

Her gift, facilitated and managed by the late Little Rock investor Richard Butler, Sr., subsequently grew to an eight million dollar endowment. Today it is the largest fund of its kind at the institution. The earned revenue from the endowment is used to sustain the quality of the programs of the department.

William G. Reese, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UAMS for 31 years, was the first faculty member to hold this prestigious chair in 1982. In 1985, Frederick G. Guggenheim, M.D., became the second recipient of the chair, and Dr. Smith now becomes the current chair holder.

A UAMS College of Medicine faculty member and distinguished scientist for 20 years, Smith developed several mental health programs at UAMS, including the Centers for Mental Healthcare Research, one of the nation’s largest research groups dedicated to mental health and substance abuse services. As director of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, he was a leader in securing the state’s tobacco settlement to improve health care for Arkansans.

Presently celebrating its 50^th anniversary, the department provides clinical care to children and adults as well as substance abuse and mental health treatment for at-risk families. An innovator of award-winning education programs, the faculty and staff of the department comprise one of the largest research groups on campus, and it is the largest mental health services research group of its kind in the nation.

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G. Richard Smith, M.D., chairman of the UAMS Department of Psychiatry

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PR Contact:    
Mike H. Mottler, Director
University Relations                              
Phone:  501-686-6270  
Fax:      501-686-5067 
E-mail:  mottlermikeh@uams.edu      

Content Contact: 
Meg Rains
Dept. of Psychiatry
UAMS College of Medicine
Phone:  501-686-8985

03/30/07