LITTLE ROCK – A donation of $2 million from the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation will benefit construction of the Carl Nelson Orthopaedic Center at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). 

The center will be located in the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute expansion, which is under construction and scheduled to open in 2010. It includes a program dedicated to the study of orthopaedic tumors.

“Our family is honored to be a part of establishing this center in recognition of Dr. Carl Nelson,” said Debbie Walker, executive director of the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation. “He was a dear friend to us, and also happened to be a well-respected physician.

“Pat especially has wanted to be a part of recognizing Dr. Nelson for his tremendous contributions to orthopaedic care in Arkansas,” Walker said. “Although he was one of the most renowned orthopaedic surgeons in the world, he chose UAMS and Arkansas as the place he loved and wanted to serve. We miss him, and wish he could be here to receive the praise he earned and deserves.”

The late Carl Nelson, M.D., a pioneer in hip and knee replacement, was chairman of the UAMS Department of Orthopaedic Surgery from 1974 until his death in 2005. While at UAMS, he developed the first practice in Arkansas dedicated solely to joint replacement surgery and helped the group grow from a faculty and staff of two to a team of 50 who have received national and international recognition for their work. 

Nelson was recognized for his efforts in 2000 with the Carl L. Nelson Endowed Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery, designed to support research in orthopaedic disease and musculoskeletal injuries.

“The center will not only be a tribute to the work that Dr. Nelson started at UAMS, but it will give us the opportunity to develop a flagship program for the university,” said Richard Nicholas, M.D., chairman of the UAMS Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. “We are grateful to the Walker family for taking a leadership role in making this dream a reality.”

In 2006, Richard Evans, M.D., assumed Nelson’s clinical practice. Evans completed his residency and research fellowship at UAMS under Nelson. He continued to collaborate with Nelson on research projects for many years after returning to Denver following his residency.

“Dr. Nelson’s legacy is still felt here at UAMS and throughout the country. I am honored to carry on his tradition of innovation in orthopaedic surgery,” Evans said. The new space will consolidate the research, educational and administrative offices of the department, which are now scattered across the UAMS campus.

The Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation has a long history of support at UAMS dating back to the family’s first donation to the UAMS Radiology Department in 1986. Major gifts from the foundation have funded the Pat and Willard Walker Tower, which houses the UAMS Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, and the Pat and Willard Walker Eye Research Center at the UAMS Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, among other programs.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, six centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has 2,538 students and 733 medical residents. Its centers of excellence include the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute and the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. It is one of the state’s largest public employers with about 9,600 employees, including nearly 1,150 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $5 billion a year. Visit www.uams.edu.