Pharmacy College Cheers Kowalewski Hall

Over 150 alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the University of Cincinnati’s James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy gathered on Nov. 9 in the recently renamed Joseph F. Kowalewski Hall to celebrate the man for whom the historic building is now named.

Kowalewski Hall, formerly known as the Health Professions Building, was designed by famed Cincinnati architectural firm Samuel Hannaford & Sons in the early 1900s. The building is situated on UC’s Academic Health Center campus and is scheduled to undergo a $27 million renovation beginning in 2016.   

Kowalewski served as dean of the College of Pharmacy from 1949 to 1970. He was the last dean of the school when it was the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy, an independent pharmacy school which first opened in 1850. Kowalewski also directed the merger of the school with the University of Cincinnati in 1954 to become the university’s 13th college. The college was renamed the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy in 2007.

"I’m so excited about the plans for the total renovation of this building. It’s going to be a fantastic state- of-the-art home that the college of pharmacy alumni, faculty, students and staff really deserve. To see such a meaningful individual honored, Dean Joe, is really what universities are all about,” UC’s President Santa Ono, PhD, said in his address to the standing room only crowd. 

Architectural renderings of the renovation and new signage bearing the Kowalewski name were also on display.

"It did not take me very long to recognize and appreciate Dean Joe’s legacy,” said the current dean, Neil MacKinnon, PhD, adding, "If it were not for Dean Joe’s efforts, there would not be a UC College of Pharmacy today.”