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BACK PAGEBeloved former staff member diesBy April Frawley BirdwellWhen the bathroom door wouldn’t budge, Hazel Donegan unlocked it.When a graduating student lost his place in line, Donegan nudgedhim back in the right order like a mama duck.For more than two decades, Donegan was the person UF medical students wentto if they had a question. As director of the student affairs office, Donegan guidedmedical students from application to graduation until she retired in 1984.Donegan passed away June 15 at the E.T. York Hospice Care Center. She was 87.“She was ‘mother’ to all the medical students,” said Robert T. Watson, M.D.,senior associate dean of educational affairs and a member of the 1969 class. “Shewas the epitome of the Southern lady.”A Waldo native, Donegan initially wanted to be an interpreter. She studiedlanguages in college and earned a master’s degree in Spanish at the University ofNorth Carolina. But a few career turns led her back to Florida.Donegan took a job working for T.Z. Cason, M.D., a Jacksonville doctor whoran a state continuing medical education program and was a key supporter of themedical school being built at UF. In 1957, one year after the UF College ofMedicine opened, Donegan came to Gainesville to work on a continuing medicaleducation program for UF doctors.“She was ‘mother’ to allthe medical students. Shewas the epitome of theSouthern lady.” — Robert T. Watson, M.D.In 1962, she switched gears and began working in the student affairs office,spending most of her 22 years there working for Dr. Hugh M. “Smiley” Hill.There, she won over students and faculty.Students gave her Waterford crystal, a cruise and even a scholarship named inher honor to thank her. Two classes also dedicated the yearbook to her.“The [students] were wonderful to me and they were just as lovely as they couldbe,” Donegan said in a 2001 interview for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program.“I couldn’t have chosen a nicer group of people.” PPOSTTHE07/08•06Published byPhotographerUF Health Science CenterOffi ce of News & CommunicationsSarah KiewelSenior Vice President, Health AffairsDouglas J. Barrett, M.D.Director, News & CommunicationsTom FortnerEditorDenise TrunkSenior EditorsMelanie Fridl Ross, John PastorDesignerMickey CuthbertsonWritersChris Brazda, April Frawley Birdwell, Tracy Brown,Sarah Carey, Linda Homewood, Lindy McCollum-Brounley, Patricia McGhee, John Pastor, JillPease, Melanie Fridl Ross, Denise TrunkUF Health ScienceC E N T E RCelebrating 50 YearsSupport StaffCassandra Jackson,Beth Powers, Kim SmithThe POST is the monthly internal newsletter forthe University of Florida Health Science Center,the most comprehensive academic health centerin the Southeast, with campuses in Gainesvilleand Jacksonville and affi liations throughoutFlorida. Articles feature news of interest for andabout HSC faculty, staff and students. Contentmay be reprinted with appropriate credit.Ideas for stories are welcome. The deadlinefor submitting items to be considered for eachmonth’s issue is the 15th of the previous month.Submit to the editor at dtrunk@ufl .edu or deliverto the Offi ce of News & Communications in theCommunicore Building, Room C3-025.www.news.health.ufl.eduPHOTO COURTESY OF THE GEORGE T. HARRELL ARCHIVES