In memoriam: Warren E. Weaver
School of Pharmacy professor emeritus and Dean Warren E. Weaver died July 10, 2014, at age 93. He taught at the school from 1950 to 1956, served as dean from 1956 to 1981 and continued to teach part-time for several years after his retirement.
Weaver, the fifth dean of the school, holds the record for longest tenure in that position. His SOP career began when then-Dean R. Blackwell Smith Jr. hired him away from the University of Maryland. Weaver arrived in Richmond as an associate professor in medicinal chemistry, having already established a reputation in the field.
While at MCV and then VCU, he established several pivotal pharmacy programs, including the master’s and Ph.D. degree offerings. He implemented one of the first pharmacy experiential education programs in the country, and he initiated the postbaccalaureate Pharm.D. program, which led to the transition from bachelor’s to Pharm.D. degrees for graduating pharmacists.
“I think he was such a great guy,” said School of Pharmacy alumnus Al Schalow (B.S. ’61). “He always had time for everybody, and his door was always open.
“If he saw your grades weren’t up to par, he wanted to help head them off before you couldn’t recover. He was always most gracious.”
His former dean made such an impact on Schalow that he quoted Weaver in the preface of his 1997 book, “Millstones and Milestones: Impressions That Guide Our Lives.”
He once asked Weaver how he could remember all the names of his former students so readily. Weaver chuckled and said he didn’t remember them all, just the really good ones and the really bad ones.
“I was smart enough not to ask him why he remembered my name,” Schalow said with a laugh.
“But that was the essence of the book. I hadn’t thought about it before, but it turned out to be true. … I felt like it was a milestone in my life just to know him and to have his help and his counsel.”
Weaver was a founding trustee of the Virginia Pharmacists Association Foundation and, on the national level, he served as 1968-69 president of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. Near the end of his tenure as dean, Schalow recalls, the school sponsored a roast for Weaver. “Everybody thought the world of him.” (Read a poem Schalow wrote about the dean.)
The year he retired, Weaver founded Christian Pharmacists Fellowship International, which had its beginnings in several informal gatherings in the late 1970s at pharmacy organizations such as AACP, VPhA and the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists (now the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists). CPFI, now based in West Palm Beach, Fla., has about 85 student chapters at universities nationwide, including VCU, as well as international student groups.
Post-retirement recognition included VPhA’s Outstanding Pharmacist Award in 1994 and the title of 1999-2000 honorary president of the American Pharmacists Association.
In 2006, the School of Pharmacy class of 1956 celebrated its golden reunion by endowing a lectureship in Weaver’s name. Each April since then, the Warren Weaver Endowed Lectureship has been presented during Reunion Weekend by current pharmacy faculty. In addition, the Warren E. Weaver Scholarship is awarded annually to a student who is outstanding in character, leadership and academic performance.
Weaver’s many legacies include several alumni connections: His daughter, Julie Fortner (M.D. ’90, housestaff ’93) and son, Glenn Weaver (B.S. business administration ’70), are VCU graduates. Fortner’s husband Glenn is also an alum (D.D.S. ’89) as is Weaver’s wife Laura (B.S. mathematics ’70).
During a July 12 funeral service at Woody Funeral Home in Richmond, Julie and Glenn Fortner’s memories of their father as a family man were shared. Julie recalled countless pony rides on her dad’s knees, planting a tree with him, going deep-sea fishing and the fact that her father wrote to her every day while she was in college. Her brother Glenn remembered their dad as hard-working, a wonderful husband, strict but loving … and also as a big fan of fishing.
Weaver is survived by his wife of 45 years, Esther Schiesser Weaver; two other daughters, Karen Rhoads and Janet Wagstaff; a stepdaughter, Barbara Adair; a brother, Norman; and 23 grandchildren, stepgrandchildren, great-grandchildren and stepgreat-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Virginia June Burkholder Weaver, and an infant son, David.
Related stories:
- In memory of Warren E. Weaver
- Service held for Warren E. Weaver
- Warren E. Weaver, Dean Emeritus 1956-81 (page 4)
- Alumni leave mark on VCU through an endowment tribute
Categories Alumni news, Faculty news, Preceptors, Student news