Dr. Jerry Wallace stood at the podium, his right arm around the shoulders of Dr. Bob Barker.
My brother, said Wallace, referring to Barker.
Barker’s wife, Dr. Pat Barker, sat nearby. My sister, said Wallace, chancellor.
“They have stood with this university and with me in ways that have strengthened me and encouraged me and blessed me, and they have done this for so many, especially this school of medicine,” said Wallace, an ordained Baptist minister who was named Campbell University’s fourth president in May 2003.
Wallace served as president for 12 years, and the medical school bears his name.
This day was about the 161 students who took part in a white coat ceremony, marking a rite of passage for first-year students in the Campbell University Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine. The class of 2028.
This day, too, was about the Barkers, longtime generous and stalwart Campbell University supporters who played no small role in founding the medical school.
Wallace and Dr. Brian Kessler, medical school dean, presented the Barkers with an ornately framed resolution honoring the couple with this year’s Jerry M. Wallace School of Osteopathic Medicine Founders Day Award.
Kessler called Wallace a transformative leader whose vision helped establish the medical school, which opened in August 2013 with 160 students. It was North Carolina’s first new medical school in 35 years, with a mission to care for rural and underserved populations.
Dr. Bob Barker at the time was chair of the feasibility committee, which carefully studied the possibility of establishing the medical school and, as a chair of the university’s board of trustees, made the recommendation to go forward in seeking approval to recruit the first class.
Kessler read from the resolution: “Doctors Bob and Pat Barker were co-chairs in the medical school-run fundraising effort, along with Oscar Harris, who raised funds needed for the construction of the medical school, and was a valued member of the Accreditation Committee, which guided the medical school to fulfill accreditation with the graduation of the first class in 2017.”
Longtime leaders in the local community, in 2009 the Barkers founded The Bob Barker Foundation, which adheres to the altruistic mission of giving back to the incarcerated community and preparing affected people physically, spiritually and emotionally.
The Barkers work directly with nonprofits and government entities to encourage best practices in proven, cost-effective approaches to reducing inmate recidivism. The Bob Barker Foundation is the only foundation in the nation that focuses solely on reducing recidivism.
“The founders recognition we celebrate today is more than just an acknowledgement,” Kessler said. “It’s a tribute to those whose foresight and generous support have allowed us to thrive.”
Wallace talked about traveling with Bob Barker to Chicago to seek accreditation. About persuading the committee to back a medical school, as similar committees backed the pharmacy and law schools, for example.
“How this school came to be was a miraculous instance,” Wallace said. “It has proved itself to be worthy of what we thought was what God would have us to do here, at this school. And you’re the newest manifestation of that,” he told the med students.
“It is so appropriate on this day, White Coat Ceremony day, that we also recognize founders. We are being embraced and being encouraged, by people who care to make this possible, in ways that will never be seen except to the few who knew what they did.”