Pharmacy Perspectives - Fall 2012 - (Page 3)

Past, present, future The previous edition of Pharmacy Perspectives highlighted our school’s history. Many of you commented that the letter from Agnes Bechmann Brandhorst, one of our earliest graduates and instructors, was a joy to read. While it showcased her personality and joie de vivre, the letter also provided a window to the past. Due to your enthusiastic response, we have located some additional gems we thought might interest you, including an article on one of our first African-American graduates and a letter from Ilah Irish Dennis, our first female graduate, wishing the program well on its 50th anniversary. If you’d like to see or read more about the school, drop by our building. Glenda Tate, our school’s unofficial historian, has gathered some fantastic mementos which are on display in our lobby and on select floors of the building. Mementos include handwritten prescriptions from the early 1900s, as well as first-of-its-kind medical equipment and medications. Thank you to Shirley and Tom Arthur, George Curfman, Karen and James Fady, F Hammerness, Marguerite Holden, Lynn Ickis, Oddy Jacobsen, .C. George Masunaga, and Jack Sassone for donating your antiques and collectibles. And a special thank you to Arnold Hayutin for the antiquities and the tales of pharmacy history. Land of Opportunity Sandrena Brockman’s father was a remarkable man. By Jenni Prosser While many children think of their fathers as incredible people, Daniel Brockman was an admirable figure not just to his family but to hundreds of people around the world. Brockman graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in pharmacology in 1953. When he received his diploma in January of that year, Brockman became one of the first black students to graduate from the school. Brockman graduated from CU four years before the Little Rock Crisis in which nine black students were prevented from entering a segregated high school in Arkansas Having grown up and spent most of his young adulthood in Greenville, S.C., receiving an advanced degree was a major accomplishment for Brockman. He graduated from CU four years before the Little Rock Crisis in which nine black students were prevented from entering a segregated high school in Arkansas. In the Brockman family, Daniel was the first person to graduate from college. The experience had a significant impact on him. Coming from an impoverished family and only the second generation removed from slavery (Brockman’s maternal grandmother had been a slave), he had a great appreciation for the opportunities and experiences he had through attending CU. “Daddy talked very fondly about his pharmacy professors at CU and that the culture there was so friendly and embracing to him,” Sandrena said. “It was such a different experience for him because the mentality in the South certainly was not there and he was very much aware of this coming from South Carolina as a black man in the 1940s and 50s. He loved the idea that people were very open to ethnicity at the time.” Sandrena describes her father, who she lovingly called her “poo bear,” as a tall, attractive, benevolent man with a dashing smile. “He was often compared to Sidney Poitier because he was such a formal, articulate person. You would hang on every word he said.” Brockman received his first degree from Benedict College in science and chemistry. He went on to teach science and biology at Sterling High School in Greenville, and had the Reverend Jesse Jackson as one of his students. In World War II, Brockman served in the Army, fighting as a sergeant first class in northern Africa. This fostered a love of the continent that he carried with him until his death in 1989. Continued on page 5 Fall 2012 33

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pharmacy Perspectives - Fall 2012

Pharmacy Perspectives - Fall 2012
Contents
Dean’s Message
Centennial Scholars
Commencement
Faculty
Tributes

Pharmacy Perspectives - Fall 2012