New Jersey and Developing a System for the Medical School
Thomas Scully describes how, after his private practice with Tony Carter closed in Las Vegas, he moved to New Jersey to become the Program Director and Assistant Professor for the Department of Pediatrics. In early summer of 1967, Scully and his family moved to Newark, New Jersey; this also happened to be the time when the Detroit, Watts, and Newark riots were in full-swing. Scully talks about the issues the riots were trying to address and the overall frustration during that time. He mentions how the medical school in Newark had been moved and the controversy surrounding this move. During his time at the New Jersey College of Medicine, Scully also worked at a free clinic in the basement of a Catholic church tended to those most likely hurt by the riots and those who distrusted the County Health Department. Scully reminisces about how he and his wife walked with a silent procession after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In the winter of 1969, Scully receives a phone call from Jim Gorman, a surgeon who had served alongside Scully in Spain. Gorman told Scully the legislature was about to vote on a bill to establish a medical school in Nevada. Scully took this opportunity to approach the men spear-heading this new medical school and acquired a job at Washoe Medical Center. Scully describes the efforts in which he took to try to convince physicians to join as staff and faculty for the budding new medical school.
Developing a System for the Medical School
Thomas Scully tells how he would travel all over the state of Nevada campaigning for a medical school. Scully, at this time, was working at Washoe Medical Center, but would eventually split his time with the medical school once it started. Scully mentions how Bob Myles rented his house out to the Scully family as Myles built his new home a block away. Thomas Scully and his family have lived in that house ever since. The funds from Howard Hughes were pivotal in the legislation voting on the medical school. Scully names the key people and their roles in establishing the school. Scully describes the immense difficulty from drafting a curriculum to finding space and classrooms to finding places for students for their third and fourth years since the school started as only a two-year school. Also the small numbers of students in the west coast getting into medical school was a problem; most kids would go to a state school or private schools which resulted in only 32 students in the first class at the medical school.