Our History

Duquesne University School of Pharmacy 1925

-SC Morrison

For over the past three-quarters of a century, the School of Pharmacy at Duquesne University has been led by only six deans. Each dean’s tenure closely paralleled major changes in pharmacy education, pharmacy as a profession, and pharmacy practice. (1)

During the thirty years (1925-1955) of founding Dean Hugh C. Muldoon’s leadership, the dominance of independent community pharmacy, the emergence of hospital pharmacy, and the implementation of the four-year bachelor’s degree in pharmacy which adhered to the tradition of a comprehensive university education, were essential developments in pharmacy at Duquesne and nationally.

Tensions within community and hospital pharmacy practice, the growth of the pharmaceutical industry, and the somewhat controversial move to a five-year baccalaureate which incorporated liberal education in a predominately pharmaceutical sciences curriculum, characterized the short term (1955-1961) of John G. Adams, Ph.D., as the second Duquesne pharmacy school dean.

Dean John S. Ruggiero, Ph.D., led the school during a period (1961-1970) in which the integration of clinical pharmacy and elective options into the five-year B.S. in Pharmacy curriculum and the relocation of the pharmacy school from Canevin Hall to the fourth floor of the new campus science building Mellon Hall for improved classroom, faculty and research facilities, were critical developments.

As dean (1970-1981), Bruce D. Martin, Ph.D., oversaw a substantial increase of pharmacy school student enrollment and of faculty numbers and the creation of a competency-based, outcomes-oriented curriculum which balanced the pharmaceutical sciences with the clinical, social, behavioral and administrative sciences and integrated a controlled experiential education component.

During the lengthy deanship (1981-1998) of Douglas H. Kay, Ph.D., the faculty addressed the move toward the pharmaceutical care model in pharmacy education, practice and the implementation of the six-year professional doctoral degree program which would be a requirement for pharmacist licensure by the early 21st century.

From 1998, Dean R. Pete Vanderveen, Ph.D., and the faculty have continued to evaluate, revise and update the competency-based, outcomes-oriented Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum, to enhance physical and fiscal resources, and to develop new initiatives to address the challenges and potentialities in the ever-changing pharmacy practice and health care environment.

(1) The major developments in pharmacy in the 20th century have been outlined in several recent publications by pharmacy historian Gregory J. Higby, Ph.D., American Institute of the History of Pharmacy.

Highlights in the History of the Duquesne University School of Pharmacy: