vigorous growth has been further fortified by the Department’s participation in global exchanges and programs, above all in Africa. Over the decades, the constituent units of the Department have moved physically in response to changing clinical needs and technological advances. In various configurations, the clinical and research branches of the Department have been located in wards of the “Old Women’s Hospital,” several floors of “Old Main,” the Holden Perinatal Center, several wings of the University Hospital, the Biomedical Sciences and Medical Science Buildings, the Maternal and Child Health Center, the North Campus Research Complex, as well as satellite clinics at Briarwood and in East Ann Arbor. In 2011, the Department’s home moved to the Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital, which includes fifty single maternity rooms, the Fetal Diagnostic Center, and the Women’s Clinic.4 As we approach the University’s bicentennial, the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology can celebrate its legacy as one of the six founding departments of the Medical School, and reflect on myriad successes that happened not because the road was always smooth, easy, or predictable but because of an inimitable combination of leadership, talent, and perseverance. The Willson Era: Fulfilled and Fraught Expansion After a bitterly cold overnight drive from Philadelphia, J. Robert Willson arrived in Ann Arbor on December 31, 1964, ready 3. Figure of 83 is from 2010-2012 annual report, have requested updated figure. 4. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Progress Report 2010-2012, University of Michigan, Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital (provided by Department). For an interactive timeline of University of Michigan buildings and campus see http://bentley.umich.edu/exhibits/campus_tour/chronology.php 34 Obstetrics and Gynecology to begin his appointment as the chair of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 5 Having served in the same capacity at Temple University for over fifteen years, Willson brought extensive experience to Michigan at a time of deep-seated transformations in American medicine and society. Willson inherited his position and the Bates Professorship of the Diseases of Women and Children from its longest serving chairman, Norman Miller, who had led the Department with great ability through the Great Depression, World War II, and post-war years, from 1931 to 1963.6 When Willson arrived, the Department was small and relatively undifferentiated, with just six faculty clinicians and three research faculty members. He quickly set out to build the Department on multiple fronts. First and foremost, Willson concentrated on bringing on board more faculty; within several years he recruited four additions – Colin Campbell, Robert Jaffe, William J. Ledger, and Edwin P. Peterson. S.J. Behrman was a key recruit as a leader in the field of infertility. Foreshadowing today’s divisions Willson launched six new programs for more specialized care and research: the Center for Research and Training in Reproductive Biology, Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, Endocrine-Infertility Clinic, Tumor Clinic, Problem Obstetric Clinic, and Public Health. Additionally, under Willson’s watch, Jaffe started the Steroid Laboratory, enhancing the Department’s emerging endocrine laboratory facilities and setting the foundation for the establishment of the Reproductive Sciences Program.7 Willson also knew that patient volume needed to grow. Although gynecology usually met its mark, obstetric volume 5. J. Robert Willson, The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology: The University of Michigan Medical School, 1964-1978, unpublished MS; Willson accepted the position in a May 22, 1963 letter to Dean William N. Hubbard (responding to a May 7th letter from Hubbard), Willson Papers, Box 2, Bentley Historical Library (BHL), University of Michigan (UM). 6. Horace W. Davenport, Not Just Any Medical School: The Science, Practice, and Teaching of Medicine at the University of Michigan, 1850-1941 (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1999), chap. 18. For a history of the Bates Professorship see Timothy R.B. Johnson, “Doctor Elizabeth Bates and the Bates Professorship of the Diseases of Women and Children,” in Howard Markel and Janet Tarolli, Caring for Children: A Celebration of the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1998), 23-36. 7. Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Annual Report, July 1, 1966-June 30, 1967, Willson Papers, Box 3, BHL, UM. Obstetrics and Gynecology (2016) 35 was low. Willson tackled this paucity in several ways. First, he looked beyond University Hospital, strengthening the training ties at Wayne County General Hospital (Wayne) that had been forged in 1961, which he viewed as “particularly valuable because of the volume of indigent patients with many serious complications of pregnancy which are seldom seen in Ann Arbor”8 and where John R. G. Gosling was a key leader. Willson recognized that the “the obstetric-gynecologic service at the Wayne County General Hospital [was] essential to our medical student and resident teaching program.” 9 Second, he fostered ties with St. Joseph Mercy Hospital (St. Joe’s), then located nearby in what is now the North Ingalls Building. Willson partnered on