To start with, you know, why do you do what you do?
You know, at the end of the day, when you're on your last day on earth, are you going to
talk about how many prescriptions you filled or are you gonna talk about how many people you helped?
You know, life throws you a lot of curveballs, and so it was last year pharmacy school, very busy, rotations,
and just looking forward to the future, and then we find out we're going to have a little baby boy.
I wanted to get out of Paducah, and I wanted to go to the big city. And my parents
dropped me off at the dorm, and I was excited to see that Kentucky license plate going down the hill.
And then, you know, years later Greg was a great student and he's looking around colleges and
he got accepted to a couple schools but he told me, "Hey dad I want to go visit Samford." And I was like,
"OK." And it's a great bond to have that he actually had some same instructors as I did.
I intended to stay in Birmingham and go to work for one of the chains when Mr. Albritton
called me in August and said, "Hey there's a store for sale and I want you to come home and look at it."
And I get real emotional about this so you'll just have to bear with me.
Before I knew it, I was signing the loan, my dad was signing behind me, and the local drug wholesaler was signing
behind him, and I went into business on October 1st 1979.
So actually Kimber was two years behind me in pharmacy school, and I was almost completed.
Actually I was already in the hospitals doing my clinical rotations and Kimber was just starting in school.
Across the street from me was her eventual roommate in pharmacy school. I thought, I need to go meet those people and
so eventually that's where I met Kimber and it burgeoned from there.
I went to Samford to get a pharmacy education and looking back I do realize that God actually had His hand in that and I,
I realize how important Samford is and what they do in their mission.
When I went to pharmacy school back in the late 1980s there were 72 schools of pharmacy in the country.
Now there's 144 and so Samford is tremendous because it continues to stand out. When people ask
me what's unique about the McWhorter School of Pharmacy, the first thing I say is mission.
Our mission is to prepare students in a nurturing Christian environment to be exemplary pharmacists
and improve health worldwide. In today's world we need individuals who are going to go above
and beyond, that are committed to compassionate care to individuals who need pharmacy services.
I thought you know we've been giving over the years just our standard donation each and every
year but now maybe it's time to step up and so Dean Crouch and Victoria came to us and said,
"Would you be interested in becoming part of the Century Circle and creating an endowment?" And we told them it's about taking care of others.
And we want to identify students that just have a passion for something other than themselves and their profession.
I did not realize that it was as easy as they explained to me.
That you can pledge so much money a year to build up a scholarship that can be endowed for future students.
And I think it's very personally rewarding.
I mean I really did cherish the time that I had at Samford, and I felt it was very important because,
one, that's where we met, but also I feel it is very important to make it accessible to any student that
wants to go and pursue that passion. There was a time when I was counting every penny, and I'm sure
a lot of pharmacy graduates are counting their pennies for awhile with student loans, but when
you come to a point in your career when God is really blessing and you have it I think for us
it's just really natural to do it. And originally it was just with the entrepreneurial spirit, but then Greg
this past year was the one that recommended well, "Why don't we do that the whole legacy thing?" So, it's special.
I think the endowment was a perfect opportunity for me to give back to Samford and
just show how much I appreciate the pharmacy school because being out in the pharmacy world
over the years I've seen just a huge difference in Samford graduates compared to graduates from other
schools as far as just personality, work ethic, knowledge. It's, it's really important to me to give
back to Samford, and I think it's something that is doable for any graduate.
We're pleased since 1927 to have a school of pharmacy here at Samford University. We've been through ups and downs,
we've been through a polio epidemic, we've been through a World War, we've been through a depression,
and we're excited because we think the Century Circle is critical to our next 100 years of success.
The ultimate goal of the Century Circle is to increase scholarship so that we can decrease
the cost of tuition and that burden on students who are called to be a pharmacist. So in 2017
we came up with the Century Circle as an opportunity to endow 100 new scholarships
over a 10 year period in celebration of our 100th anniversary in 2027. We have alumni in over
46 states, in five different countries, and they're making such a positive effect, so I invite you to
share your story, and consider giving to the McWhorter School of Pharmacy Century Circle.