Enduring Legacy: The M. D. Anderson Foundation and the Texas Medical Center

Chapter 7. “One of the Greatest Medical Centers Ever Developed”

Chapter 7 “One of the Greatest Medical Centers Ever Developed” By the first months of 1944, the M. D. Anderson Foundation trustees could list a cancer research hospital, a medical school, a dental college, and a 134-acre tract of land as core components of their planned medical center in Houston. Although many people would have a part in creating the Texas Medical Center during the formative years of 1942–62, undoubtedly it was the collaborative effort of the trustees of the Anderson Foundation along with Drs. E. W. Bertner and Frederick C. Elliott that became the driving force behind the center’s early development. In particular, Bertner emerged as both the guiding hand behind the formation of the medical center and the public face in front of it. In fact, while wartime restrictions on construction slowed the physical development of the new medical center, those limitations allowed time for Bertner to work closely with the Anderson trustees and his trusted colleague Elliott in the crucial early stages of planning the medical center. Bertner’s first priority during 1944, however, was preparing the M. D. Anderson cancer hospital to begin serving patients. Although he and his team worked very hard to prepare the old Baker estate, his wife, Julia, was not impressed. “I didn’t think that anything could ever come out of it,” she recalled years later. “But bless his heart they worked at it so hard.” Bertner was a demanding taskmaster and quickly realized that he needed someone who possessed both the professional experience and the fortitude to work under the pressure involved with setting up the new facility . He contacted his former nurse, Anna Hanselman, who had worked with him during the 1920s, and asked her to return to Houston from 118 CHAPTER 7 California to help organize the new hospital. Bertner had managed to get permission from the government to construct a small clinic building on the estate and wanted Hanselman’s help as he prepared it to begin seeing cancer patients. For a time, Hanselman took up residence in the old Baker mansion, where she worked for a year making preparations, gathering supplies, and scrounging for equipment, all of which proved to be a real hardship due to the rationing of most commodities for the war effort. Years later, Hanselman recalled some of the challenges she faced getting the clinic ready. “They were just laying the foundation for the clinic when I got there,” said Hanselman. “I had so much to do.You see, you couldn’t buy linens and things like that. I spent from about the first of August until the clinic opened making towels and all that we needed for the clinic. I knew everything we’d need because I had worked in Dr. Bertner’s office and I had it all ready.” One of the final preparatory tasks was for Hanselman to organize, label, and sterilize all of the new instruments in time for the clinic’s opening.1 Finally, on February 17, 1944, a host of dignitaries, including officials from the University of Texas, the M. D. Anderson Hospital for Cancer Research, and the M. D. Anderson Foundation, held dedication ceremonies for the hospital. Bertner, who was now both chairman of the state cancer committee and acting director of the hospital, presided at the three-hour ceremony. An elated Representative Arthur Cato of Weatherford, who had introduced the legislation to establish the cancer hospital in 1941, exclaimed, “This is the happiest moment of my life!” That evening, at a dedication dinner sponsored by the Houston Chamber of Commerce, Texas governor Coke Stevenson said that the hospital was “a product of men of vision.” Bishop Clinton S. Quin opened the dinner program with an invocation, and Francis Marion Law, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Educational Committee , presided. In his remarks Law paid tribute to Monroe D. Anderson and, looking ahead to the postwar era, also set high expectations for the future Texas Medical Center. “What an inspiration and a challenge Monroe Dunaway Anderson has left to us,” he said. “We know that great industrial development is coming to our city; it is pleasing to know that we are not neglecting the humanities. This medical center is to be one of the chief assets not only of Houston and of Texas, but of these United States.”2 119 “ONE OF THE GREATEST MEDICAL CENTERS” The M. D. Anderson Hospital...