Feb. 3, 2010 | The College of Pharmacy came full circle with its roots as it was recently presented with a pair of historical gifts from a family steeped in UAMS tradition.

Roger Browning Bost, M.D., professor emeritus of pediatrics in the UAMS College of Medicine, indulged an audience of 100 UAMS faculty, family and friends with a thorough history lesson as he presented a pharmacy diploma earned by his father, Roger Samuel Bost, in 1912 to the UAMS College of Pharmacy. Alongside the framed diploma was a separate gift depicting graduation photos of the pharmacy class, believed to be the “first or second” in the state’s history, Bost said.

Known then as the University of Arkansas Pharmacy Department, it was located in what is now the Old State House on Markham Street in downtown Little Rock.

“Pharmacy has indeed come a long way since those days, and I know how honored my dad would be today to see just how far it has progressed,” Bost said. “This is just a small token in honor of everything the profession did for him and my family.”

Upon graduation in 1912, Roger Samuel Bost, who died in 1981, opened a community pharmacy in Mulberry before moving it 25 miles east to the courthouse square in Clarksville in 1921. Bost ran the pharmacy practice for 40 years before selling it in 1960.

The Bost Crescent Drug Store was a true family drugstore in that all family members worked there at some point in their lives.

“Everything I ever knew about pharmacy – and about life, really – began working in that old store,” Bost said. “I remember jerking sodas there, running errands and all kinds of assorted tasks growing up. Then we’d close up late at night and walk home.”

Roger Browning Bost took those life lessons and went on to have a long and distinguished career, graduating from the University of Arkansas College of Medicine in 1945. He served as a medical officer in the U.S. Navy and completed a residency in pediatrics at Duke University Hospital. In 1951 he was an assistant professor of pediatrics at Tulane University Medical School and a senior staff pediatrician at the Ochsner Clinic and Charity Hospital in New Orleans. He returned to Arkansas in 1953 and had a private practice in Fort Smith for 12 years, before moving to Little Rock in 1965 to join the faculty at UAMS as associate professor and later professor of pediatrics.

During his 28-year career with the UAMS College of Medicine, he served in a variety of leadership positions in addition to his academic and clinical responsibilities, including chairman of the Pediatric Department, associate dean of the College of Medicine and executive director of the UAMS Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) program, among many others.

“We are honored to receive these gifts and will make sure to have them on prominent display to pay tribute to this legendary family in UAMS history,” said Stephanie Gardner, Pharm.D., Ed.D., dean of the College of Pharmacy.

Jonathan Wolfe, Pharm.D., Ed.D., associate dean of the College of Pharmacy, said the gifts will be on display at the sixth-floor entrance to the College of Pharmacy in the Education II building.

“This is where I gave my best efforts for many years,” Bost said. “I’ve been blessed with a lot of things, and a lot of those blessings came from right here at UAMS.”