History of OU College of Pharmacy

College of Pharmacy Deans

  • Edwin C. “Daddy” DeBarr | 1899-1904
  • Homer C. Washburn | 1904-1912
  • Charles H. Stocking | 1912-1917
  • Howard S. Browne | 1917-1919
  • D.B.R. Johnson | 1919-1949
  • Ralph William Clark | 1949-1963
  • E. Blanche Sommers, Interim Dean | 1963
  • Loyd Ervin Harris | 1963-1970
  • Charles W. Blissett | 1970-1975
  • John R. Sokatch, Interim Dean | 1975-1976
  • Rodney D. Ice | 1976-1983
  • H. Richard Shough, Interim Dean | 1982-1984 & 1996-1997
  • Victor A. Yanchick | 1985-1996
  • Carl K. Buckner | 1997-2002
  • Douglas W. Voth | 2002-2007
  • JoLaine R. Draugalis | 2007-2023
  • Melissa Medina | 2023-Present

Timeline

1890s – 

In 1893, 14 years before Oklahoma became a state, the Pharmacy Department is organized to “fit young men and women for the … position of preparing and compounding medicines.”

Edwin C. “Daddy” DeBarr, one of four original faculty members, was head of the department from 1893 until 1899 when the department became the School of Pharmacy. He served as dean until 1904. Lemuel “Lem” Dorrance is the first to receive a diploma in 1896.

1900s: The new science hall was completed in 1904. It still stands today on the North Oval at OU’s main campus in Norman. The four-year bachelor’s of science in pharmacy degree was instituted in 1907.

1910s: The School of Pharmacy offered courses by correspondence through the university extension department in 1913. The college makes an effort to appeal to women. The general catalogue for 1919 states, “The work is clean, pleasant and agreeable, and women are particularly adapted to it.”

1920s: The graduate program was implemented in 1924. The school moved to a new home in 1928, where it remained for the next 48 years. 

1940s: The prescription laboratory is built in 1949.

1950s: The school officially became the OU College of Pharmacy in 1950.

1970s: In 1976, the college moved to the Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City.

1980s: The Henry D. and Ida Mosier Pharmacy Building – still home to the College of Pharmacy – is occupied in 1983. It was considered to be “one of the best designed college of pharmacy buildings in the nation.” 

1990s: In 1992, the first post-baccalaureate Pharm.D. class graduates, with seven pharmacists. In 1997, the first all Pharm.D. class graduates and the first Pharm.D. degrees awarded in a non-traditional program.

2000s: The first Tulsa class began in 2002, producing graduates in 2006.

2010s: The college celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2018.


Henry D. and Ida Mosier

Henry David Mosier and his wife Ida left a remarkable legacy that will benefit The University of Oklahoma College of Pharmacy for many years to come. Henry and his twin brother William Berlin Mosier were members of the OU track team and both earned the Pharmaceutical Chemist Diploma from OU in 1912. Henry worked at Kirkland Drug Store in Edmond for many years while William worked at A. E. Gray Drug Store in Guthrie.

Henry and Ida acquired significant assets through land purchases in central Oklahoma and eventually bequeathed a substantial portion of their estate to OU, most of which was designated to benefit the College of Pharmacy. Of that, $1.5 million was utilized to help fund the Henry D. and Ida Mosier Building on the OU Health Sciences Center campus in Oklahoma City, which currently houses the College of Pharmacy. Other portions of the bequest are utilized to fund the Henry D. and Ida Mosier Centennial Chair of Toxicology, the Mosier Scholarships, Mosier Senior Scholar of the Year Award (Dean’s Award), and to support the Mosier Scholar program. Additional funding for the pharmacy building was obtained from private donors, principally alumni, and the state of Oklahoma through substantial efforts exerted by state Senator Ernest D. Martin.