By John Schleicher
During her time as an emeritus professor in the mid-1970s, Bernice Hetzner, former library director (1948-1973), began collecting materials on the history of the UNMC campus as well as items concerning the history of the health professions in Omaha and across Nebraska. In conjunction with the College of Medicine’
Dr. Frank Menolascino, left, interviewing Dr. Leon McGoogan, right.
s centennial in 1980-1981, Hetzner conducted a number of oral history interviews with leading figures from the campus’ past. The transcripts of many of these interviews, along with biographical information about the interviewees, are available online at DigitalCommons@UNMC. The original cassette tapes of these interviews have been digitized and some of the audio files have be placed online.
In the early 2000s, Robert Wigton, M.D., alumnus and faculty member, conducted more oral history interviews with leading figures at UNMC. These interviews will also have transcripts and video placed online. Dr. Wigton has digitized video and had transcripts produced of several oral history interviews conducted in the 1980s, by alumnus and former faculty member Frank Menolascino, M.D. (1930-1992). Through the financial support of Dr. Wigton, a new project began in the summer of 2016 to interview another group of individuals who have played a significant part in the recent history of UNMC. Among these will be individuals representing all of the colleges at UNMC.