THE PURDUE
PHARMACIST
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PURDUE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PHARMACY AND PHARMACAL SCIENCES
Vol. 61
Spring 1984
No. 1
DEAN TYLERS
COLUMN
Once again, I would like to relinquish
this column to our retiring associate
Dean Glen J. Sperandio to provide for
all of us some of his memories of the
School. May I take this opportunity of
welcoming Dr. George R. Spratto as the
new Associate Dean as of January l,
1984.
There are few who do not know Dr.
Spratto, I'm sure, but we shall highlight
some of his many accomplishments that
aused him to be appointed to this posi-
ion in a future issue.
DR. SPERANDIO
MEMOIRS
For one hundred years our School has
grown and prospered, and the public
celebration to recognize this achievement will reach a climax March 15-16
when we have a formal Centennial program. One of the main reasons our
School has achieved its international
prominence and status has been because
we have always looked ahead and tried
to build for the future. One seldom
makes progress by looking backward.
However, as one who shares in the pride
of our school's growth, I would like to
reminisce and think back on the almost
forty years that I have been at Purdue.
I'm sure some of our older alumni will
recall some incidents with nostalgia and
our younger ones may be amused by the
comparisons between then and now.
ight after World War II, beginning in
45, there was an increased number of
applicants for admission to our School,
but total enrollment for the four year
program accommodated 250 students
♦
Dr. Glen J. Sperandio
at a maximum. Our class size started to
grow in 1947 and 1948 when surplus
army warehouses were brought to campus and the Purdue pharmacy annex
was built on a baseball field next to the
pharmacy building. We remember the
dispensing labs in the old annex, the
pharmacology labs at the other end of
the building, and the x-ray department
with the responsibility for taking x-rays
of all the students and staff on campus.
We remember the late 1940's when we
had two pharmacy students who were
varsity members of the football squad
on the first team, and we had justifiable
pride in Norb Adams, our star halfback, and Angelo Carnaghi, the center.
In the early 50's student enrollment
mushroomed. Who can forget the
crowded labs and classes when we had
150 students per class in facilities originally planned for classes one-third that
size? — And the "Black and White
Houses," the barracks for married students!
We remember with sorrow the tragic
death of Dr. Edwards, who collapsed
while crossing campus. We remember
with some amusement Doc Miller in the
basement of the Administration Building where the student health center was
located, and the health services provided to the student body. The Purdue
University Pharmacy distributed an
average of six prescriptions to every
student patient and 95% of all the prescription items dispensed were prepared
and manufactured in Dr. Dekay's manufacturing laboratory. At that time,
prescriptions were free to the students
and paid for by the University. With the
advent of the antibiotics, charges were
initiated and for the first time students
actually operated a cash register in the
senior dispensing lab.
We think of the library with Miss Dun-
ton as our only librarian and with the
main reading room and library equipped
with one long table with sixteen chairs,
facing a long bench on which chemical
abstracts was placed with spaces on
either side of the bench for another six
students. We remember the smells in the
old pharmacy building; the chemistry
labs with hydrogen sulfide, and ether
when alkaloids were extracted; the
pharmacy labs with the fragrance of
arometic elixir and liquor antisepticus;
Dr. Lee and his profound knowledge of
pharmacy and intense dislike for smoking; the dispensing labs where cod liver
oil emulsions perfumed the air; and of
course, Dr. Dekay's manufacturing lab
where raspberry syrup was made from
fresh raspberries as an annual event.
We remember the inspection trips to
Abbott, Parke-Davis, Upjohn, Eli Lilly,
and those few trips to Lederle and
Squibb in New York. One class will
never forget the trip to New York when
it looked as if the entire group would
be quarantined in the hotel because a
student had chicken-pox (which turned
out to be an allergic reaction to penicil-
 continued on page two
THE PURDUE PHARMACIST will be published three times per year (Spring, Summer, Fall). Subscription price for the three issues is
$2.00. Address all correspondence to The Purdue Pharmacist, School of Pharmacy and Pharmacal Sciences, Purdue University, West
Lafayette, IN 47907.