Contact: Monty Jones, (512) 499-4363

Date: August 12, 1999

UT System News Release

Regents Authorize Transfer of Moncrief Radiation Center

GALVESTON – The Moncrief Radiation Center, a cancer treatment facility in Fort Worth, and its two satellite centers would be transferred to the control of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas under a plan authorized Thursday (August 12) by the Board of Regents.

The center has been administered by the U.T. M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston since 1994, when it was given to M. D. Anderson by the center’s board of directors. The center’s satellite operations are at Huguley Medical Center and Campbell Health System.

The U.T. System Board of Regents voted Thursday (August 12) at its meeting in Galveston to authorize the transfer of administration of the center to U.T. Southwestern. The proximity of U.T. Southwestern will make it easy for the center to pursue an operational plan that will serve the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area, officials said.

"M. D. Anderson has done an outstanding job of operating the Moncrief Radiation Center and has significantly strengthened the center’s research and patient care activities," said U.T. System Chancellor William H. Cunningham. "We are confident that under the administration of U.T. Southwestern the center will continue to play a vital role in health care delivery and medical research throughout the Metroplex."

Cunningham said details of the transfer remain to be completed, but that the plan had been endorsed by M. D. Anderson President John Mendelsohn, U.T. Southwestern President Kern Wildenthal, U.T. System officials, and W. A. "Tex" Moncrief Jr.

Mr. Moncrief, a Fort Worth oilman and former member of the U.T. System Board of Regents, chaired the Moncrief Center’s board of directors when the center was given to M. D. Anderson.

He served on the Board of Regents from 1987 to 1993 and has been an independent oil and gas producer since 1946. He earned a degree in petroleum engineering from U.T. Austin in 1942 and in 1983 was named a Distinguished Engineering Graduate by the university.