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

Introduction

Located in Houston, theTexas Medical Center is the largest medical center in the world. Although the idea of building a medical complex in the Bayou City had been suggested occasionally during the 1920s and 1930s, it was the M. D. Anderson Foundation, established by Monroe Dunaway Anderson in 1936, that ultimately became the driving force behind creating and shaping the center of today. Indeed, this spectacular concentration of institutions dedicated to healing, medical research, and education took years to develop, and it arose in a rather unlikely setting on the Texas coastal plains, fifty miles inland from the Gulf of Mexico, on a tract of soggy land just south of downtown Houston. In considering this history of the M. D. Anderson Foundation, the Texas Medical Center, and the people who were the major players, one cannot help but ask: “Why Houston?” What first attracted the early settlers in the beginning? How is it that the little log cabin settlement on Buffalo Bayou grew to become such a thriving economic region that would both sow the seeds for and support a world-renowned medical center? Houston as a magnet for entrepreneurs is, in fact, part of the sequence of events that led first to the creation of the M. D. Anderson Foundation and later to the founding of the Texas Medical Center. This study will examine the confluence of events that led to creating these venerable institutions, the key people who played significant roles, and the historical setting in which both the foundation and the medical center have continued to thrive. During the first century of its existence, Houston was not an easy place in which to live. It proved to be an environment rich in natural resources, however, strategically located to become a center of trade and conducive to the kind of business success that encouraged firms both large and small to locate here. From the city’s inception in 1836, Houston has been a business-friendly community that attracted men and women who saw opportunity and who brought with them both an entrepreneurial spirit and the bold thinking that enabled them to Introduction xxii INTRODUCTION dream large. Not all of them succeeded in their business endeavors, but many did, and most of these people possessed both self-interest and a sense of civic virtue that inspired them to give back to the community that had nurtured their success. City leaders emerged in other burgeoning professions in the Bayou City: physicians, who were instrumental in improving the city’s public health care; lawyers, who played an integral part in helping the city’s growing business community develop on a sound footing; and bankers, who found creative ways to finance both public and private endeavors. So, as Houston began to develop, cotton traders and men in the timber and transportation industries helped the city grow economically, which in turn attracted others who continued to move the city forward. Later it was pioneers in the oil industry, petrochemicals , space technology, and researchers in science and medicine, all bringing their dreams, ideas, and energy. Many of the men and women in the business and professional community exercised great influence over the direction of Houston as the city grew in size and population and as it matured in its institutions and amenities. Physicians, lawyers, bankers, and business professionals of every type served in leadership capacities as mayors, city council members , county officials, and leaders in their professional associations. Several of the names that appear in this study are representative of these men and women who believed strongly in building a better Houston both for themselves and for succeeding generations. They volunteered their time and in many cases donated much of the wealth they had earned through their business endeavors, all with the ultimate goal of making Houston into a world-class city. Individually, their stories are intriguing and adventurous, but collectively, they developed a “can-do” community spirit that encouraged the innovation, creativity, cooperation , and plain old hard work ethic that led to their own success and to the development of Houston as a burgeoning, cosmopolitan, international city. Early on, these civic leaders envisioned a great city, and they found ways to inspire their fellow Houstonians to join them in supporting their grand ideas and worthy causes, often with amazing results. By creating their own innovative mechanisms for matching private and public funding, they frequently achieved the impossible, from digging the Houston Ship Channel and creating a deepwater seaport—fifty [18.218.129.100...