Gibsons to provide funding for new discretionary chair

Dr. Smith H. Gibson, a dermatologist with a distinguished 50-year medical career, has had a longtime desire to give something back to the University of Louisville.

"I had a great experience as a student there and received _excellent preparation that has proved invaluable over the years," the Covington, Ky., doctor says.

Several years ago Gibson established the Nancy Middleton Smith lectureship in cardiopulmonary medicine in honor of his grandmother, who died in 1927.

"That has been very rewarding," he says of the lectureship.

More recently, Dr. Gibson and his wife, Lucille Holmes Gibson, made estate plans to fund a discretionary chair in the School of Medicine.

"The actual gift from our estate will be about $1.4 million, but by the time we're gone, we don't know how much good that will do," Gibson notes. "Therefore, we wanted to provide inflationary protection, so we donated stock worth about $300,000. That amount will be accumulating in the meantime."

The term "discretionary chair" means the dean's office can decide where in the School of Medicine such a chair would be most beneficial.

Following graduation from UofL in the spring of 1950, Gibson completed a one-year internship at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Covington. He then entered family practice in for three years in Williamstown, Ky.

After that, he was awarded a three-year fellowship and residency in dermatology at the Mayo Foundation in Rochester, Minn. Gibson remained there until 1957, when he entered private practice in Covington. That same year, Gibson was granted a professorship at the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine.

In 1988, after advancing through the school's ranks to clinical professor in 1985, he was named professor emeritus of dermatology.

Today, at 77, Gibson still practices part-time. Over the years, he has become prominent for his devotion to both medicine and medical education. Recent accolades include Excellence in Teaching honors in 1988 and 1992. In 1997 and 1999, Gibson received the Cincinnati Dermatological Society nomination for the National Practitioner of the Year.

The Gibsons, who have been married for 54 years, previously established two perpetual lectureships and a permanent research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic.

Gibson is a native of Harlan County, Ky., and attended Berea College in 1942 and '43 before entering the military during World War II. He resumed his undergraduate work at the University of Kentucky by earning a bachelor's of science in chemistry in 1946. The following month, Gibson began his studies at the UofL School of Medicine.

"I've been blessed with good health, and that has enabled me to remain active all these years," Gibson says. "It's very rewarding to be able to give back to UofL."

The Gibsons have five children, one of whom graduated with honors from UofL's school of medicine in 1980. Dr. Lawrence E. Gibson has been a professor and staff consultant at the Mayo Clinic for more than a decade and recently served as a visiting professor at UofL.

Lucille Holmes Gibson has a bachelor's degree in dietetics but, except for one year of practice, has devoted her skills to homemaking.