At the Feb. 9 dedication of the Grace Crum Rollins Public Health Building, Greenberg used the dictionary to illustrate the relationship between the given name of the school's most generous benefactor and the school's work, mission and new home. "In thinking about the work that goes on here," Greenberg said, "it seems particularly fitting that the first name of this building should be `Grace.' My well-worn copy of Webster's New World Dictionary gives several definitions of the word grace. The first definition is `beauty or charm of form.' Never did a word more aptly describe our benefactor, Mrs. Rollins, or the building that bears her name."
Greenberg went on to cite another definition of grace: "a sense of what is right and proper." "Surely, nothing guides the mission of this school more directly than that purpose," he said. "It is a touchstone of our lives and an abiding faith for all who study and work here."
"There is one more definition of grace worth mentioning on this occasion," Greenberg said, "which is `divine influence acting in man (my dictionary was written in politically incorrect times) to make him pure and morally strong.' Now, I cannot say with absolute certainty that all of our actions here are divinely inspired, or even pure and morally strong... I do believe, nevertheless, that we strive here toward a higher purpose. We are motivated by the conviction that the most ennobling act of all is to help others help themselves. In that regard, and in other definitions of grace, I hope that we are faithful to our namesake."
"Public Health is a team assembled by Dr. Ron Braithwaite to work on community empowerment in Reynoldstown, a neighborhood just a few miles from campus but in a different world of realities," Greenberg said. "Public Health is Dr. Glen Maberly and colleagues, who are collaborating with over two dozen countries to eradicate nutritional deficiencies that prevent children from reaching their full potential. Public Health is an Agricultural Medicine program that sends doctors out to rural Georgia to help reduce the hazards of farming, one of the most dangerous types of work in the United States. Public Health is Drs. Longini, Halloran and Heber, who are conducting groundbreaking research on the transmission and control of infectious diseases. All of these efforts, and many others too numerous to mention, define Public Health at this institution."
The new building, Greenberg pointed out, offers the school unprecedented opportunities to expand the base of its mission. "For the first time, we have laboratories of our own, and these facilities will help to shape the future of the Rollins School of Public Health," he said. "In the area of infectious diseases, for example, we are initiating new laboratory research on antibiotic resistant micro-organisms. In the area of environmental health, our program will take a giant step forward next month, when Dr. Barry Ryan from Harvard University moves his established program in chemical exposure assessment to our laboratories."
Located on the lowest level of the 10-story public health building, the laboratories have been designed in a non-traditional way. Instead of providing a relatively small amount of lab space for each individual researcher, the space is divided into four much larger areas, with each area designated by the type of research conducted there, thus more easily allowing collaborative projects with researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Carter Center, and other units of Emory.
The four research areas are toxicology, biochemistry, molecular biology and infectious diseases.
"Today we pay a richly deserved tribute to Grace Crum Rollins," said Bradley Currey Jr., chair of the Board of Trustees, who presided at the dedication ceremony. "This building celebrates the Rollins family and Mrs. Rollins. But there is one face missing, that of O. Wayne Rollins. Although he is not with us today, his spirit is here. It fills this place, and it is 10 feet tall."
Mrs. Rollins' late husband, businessman O. Wayne Rollins, died in October of 1991, eight months after the dedication of the O. Wayne Rollins Research Center, which is adjacent to the Rollins Public Health Building. Rollins donated $10 million toward the construction of the Rollins Center.
Charles R. Hatcher Jr., vice president for Health Affairs and director of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center, said that Rollins' investment in the health sciences at Emory initially grew out of a concern over those suffering with cancer and Alzheimer's disease. "We later discussed with him a plan for a Public Health school," said Hatcher. "He was concerned about violence, teen pregnancy and other issues affecting young people. He wanted to make sure that a School of Public Health at Emory would maintain a balance between playing an activist role in communities and being a part of an academic think tank at the University."
"You and your family have honored us with your generosity," Hatcher told Mrs. Rollins. "I hope and trust that the Rollins name will forever be in the minds and hearts of all those who pass through here on their way to serve mankind."
--Dan Treadaway