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BCMS
HONOREES

MARVIN FORLAND, MD

Past as Prologue

By Sheila Hotchkin

E ach morning at UT Health San Antonio brings the ar- “This is what I like to do,” he says simply.

Tireless in retirement, Dr. Forland continues to innovate after five
rival of Marvin Forland, MD, MACP. He steps into the
library and heads toward the door beside his portrait.
instrumental in the creation and development of the Center for
Entering his office, he sets his open briefcase behind his desk and decades with UT Health San Antonio. In recent years, he has been
turns his attention to working toward the greater good of the uni- Medical Humanities & Ethics, which teaches ethics and profession-
versity – as he has done for a half-century. alism while nurturing empathy and humanitarian values.
Much has changed since 1968, when Dr. Forland left the Univer- In 2014, the American College of Physicians celebrated Dr. For-
sity of Chicago to help start a new medical school in San Antonio land’s achievements with its Texas Chapter Centennial Award. Most
on the site of a former dairy farm. UT Health San Antonio’s first recently, the Bexar County Medical Society honored Dr. Forland
graduating class had 33 students. Today, it enrolls 3,300 students in with a Distinguished Service Award in January 2019.
five schools. An entire campus – now one of three in San Antonio
and Laredo – has sprung up around the original medical school. The Communitarian
The university’s reputation has grown, along with the quality of An avid reader since childhood, Dr. Forland found himself drawn
medical care in San Antonio. to books that glamorized medicine: Arrowsmith, The Citadel, and
But one thing has not changed: Dr. Forland – now an 85-year- Microbe Hunters among them. He also greatly admired several of
old emeritus professor volunteering his time – goes to work every his friends’ fathers who were physicians.
morning. “As I proceeded in school, it was quite clear to me that I was more

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14 San Antonio Medicine • March 2019