Contact: Anthony de Bruyn , (512) 499-4363

Date: May 13, 2004

UT System News Release

Ronald F. Garvey Named President Emeritus
of U.T. Health Center at Tyler

AUSTIN – Dr. Ronald F. Garvey, the former president of the University of Texas Health Center at Tyler, was named president emeritus of that institution on Thursday (May 13) by the U.T. System Board of Regents.

Garvey served as the interim director, then as president, of U.T. Health Center at Tyler from November 1997 until October 2002. Previously he was the CEO of Zale Lipshy University Hospital in Dallas from 1987 to 1991. From 1960 to 1993, he served on the staff of the U. T Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, where he was a professor of surgery.

Garvey received a bachelor's degree from Harvard College in 1949 and a medical degree from the University of Buffalo in 1953. He received a master's of business administration degree in health care administration from the University of Dallas in 1986.

He began his medical career in Dallas with an internship at Parkland Memorial Hospital in 1953. After service in the Air Force he returned to Parkland for his residency in 1956. From 1959 to 1960 he was a research fellow in the areas of arthritis and metabolic disease at the National Institutes of Health.

Garvey joined U.T. Southwestern in 1960 as an instructor of surgery and held a succession of academic and administrative appointments.

He maintained a private practice in surgery from 1961 to 1983, and he was the team physician for the Dallas Cowboys from 1963 to 1972 and a consultant for the team from 1972 to 1993.

In addition to his service at Zale Lipshy University Hospital, Garvey also held staff appointments for more than 30 years at Parkland and at St. Paul Hospital.

The U.T. Health Center at Tyler is an acute care facility with a biomedical research and education mission. The center provides health care for Texans needing specialists in areas such as adult and pediatric pulmonary disease, cardiology, primary care medicine, and occupational medicine.

The U.T. System has 15 campuses, including nine academic and six health institutions, an enrollment exceeding 177,000 students, more than 87,000 employees, and an annual operating budget of $7.8 billion. The U.T. System confers one-third of the state's undergraduate degrees and educates three-fourths of the state's health care professionals annually.

U.T. Health Center at Tyler

Related news releases:

Kirk Aquilla Calhoun Appointed President of U.T. Health Center at Tyler, September 21, 2002

President of U.T. Health Center at Tyler to Retire, January 14, 2002