Twenty Years in the Making: Gwendolyn Mcwhorter's Legacy Lives On at UAB

By Emma Lang

Gwendolyn McWhorter, Ph.D., dedicated her life to education, public health, and community. Twenty years after her death, she continues to make a difference thanks to a planned gift she made to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to support geriatric research.

Born in 1902 to a family that valued education, Dr. McWhorter was a trailblazer. She earned two master’s degrees and was among the first class of women to earn a doctoral degree from Harvard University. She soon brought her degrees and passions back to Birmingham, where she devoted herself to the betterment of public health by teaching, volunteering with children, and donating medical journals.

Dr. McWhorter ensured that her lifelong commitment to public health would continue in perpetuity. Through her estate, she created The Gwen McWhorter Endowed Chair in Geriatric Medicine. In the 20 years since it was established, the endowment has supplied funds that have allowed UAB to advance its geriatric research.

Dr. McWhorter foresaw that as the population continued to age, American medicine needed to shift its focus to treating the unique needs of the elderly. She anticipated correctly. According to a Health Affairs article published in 2002, while 35 million people in the U.S. were elderly and 23% of them reported being in poor health, only three of the nation’s 145 medical schools had geriatrics departments, and less than 10% of these required a geriatrics course. In addition, according to the journal, less than 1% of the nation’s practicing RNs were certified in geriatrics.

Rodney Tucker, M.D., Ph.D., the interim division director of UAB division of gerontology, geriatrics, and palliative care, describes Dr. McWhorter as a visionary who understood the need for a transformative gift to support research in this area. “This has allowed us to recruit a leader for the division and support their particular line of research, such as mobility in frail elderly or life space preservation,” he says. “The chair has allowed us to be competitive nationally to attract leaders for the division.”“We realized about 20 years ago that the Baby Boomer population would be aging, and we hadn’t put as much thought into what the health care system was going to look like for them,” Dr. Tucker says. “Dr. McWhorter had the foresight to say, ‘Hey, we are going to need to study this. We need to do a better job because we are going to have significantly more people aging in the population.’ ”

Patricia Goode, M.D., Ph.D., was the original recipient of The Gwen McWhorter Endowed Chair in Geriatric Medicine, and she retired in 2019. Dr. Goode's research advanced prevention and treatment of urinary incontinence. Through Dr. Goode’s research and Dr. McWhorter’s endowment, she improved the quality of life of thousands of women.

“The gift has allowed the division to continue to be successful and broaden the area of research of aging and vulnerable populations,” Dr. Tucker says. “It clearly has supported the division in advancing the knowledge of different geriatric syndromes.”

Dr. Tucker says that the chair has also been crucial for recruiting top candidates to UAB. Because Dr. McWhorter’s endowment category is broad, it covers many areas of geriatric research. This is helpful for the university in that it attracts candidates and encourages them to focus on the needs of elder care that are currently pressing. While Dr. Goode studied urinary incontinence, general geriatrics, and geriatric syndromes, the next person to hold the chair, Cynthia Brown, M.D., MSPH, studied mobility.

“The broad scope of this chair allows flexibility of the researcher to concentrate on the area of gerontology most needed,” Dr. Tucker says. “Research is constantly changing. Her legacy allows the person who holds the chair to follow those changes and address them.”

Given her lifelong devotion to public health and education, Dr. McWhorter’s decision to make a gift to advance geriatric research did not surprise her family, Patricia A. McWhorter, her niece, says.

“As a family, education has been a very strong (value), and philanthropy to higher education has naturally followed,” she says.

Dr. McWhorter, who helped raise her nieces and nephews, always emphasized the importance of education and learning to them, and she remained committed to those values until her final days. A 2001 interview about her gift shared one of Dr. McWhorter’s favorite sayings: “As long as you continue to read, you will continue to learn, and as long as you continue to learn, you will continue to grow as a person.”

While Dr. McWhorter served her community throughout her life, her legacy lives on through advancing the research and health of elderly people. Learn the different ways you, too, can leave a legacy of purpose and passion like that of Dr. McWhorter. Contact the Office of Planned Giving at (205) 996-7533 or plannedgiving@uab.edu for more information.