Hallowed Halls: Columbaria at Duke Medicine

The architecture of Duke’s campus has been long admired for its gothic features and manicured gardens. Even modern structures, like the Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans Center for Health Education, are gorgeous from every angle. Yet it is beneath their exteriors that these walls become truly interesting. The Davison and Seely G. Mudd buildings, for example, share a design feature not found elsewhere in the medical center: each has a columbarium.

The idea for a columbarium began in 1949 when the Executive Committee of the Medical School formed a subcommittee, chaired by Dr. Wiley Forbus, to draft a proposal on how to commemorate the founding of the medical school. The initial proposal recommended murals be painted to honor significant events and that a host of professorships be created and named for each of the original department heads. The Executive Committee instead opted to create a depository for the ashes of the original department heads. Dr. Forbus, again, headed a subcommittee to investigate locations for the memorial. The subcommittee recommended the memorial be constructed in the entry hallway of the medical school, and on October 23, 1950, the proposal was approved by President Hollis Edens. 

The memorial was unveiled during a ceremony on November 6, 1955,Original columbarium, 1955 honoring the four original department heads who had passed: Dr. Francis Swett, Dr. Frederic Hanes, Dr. William Perlzweig and Ms. Bessie Baker. Tragically, the wife of Dr. Swett, Elizabeth, suffered a stroke during the ceremony and passed away the same day. As per instructions made previously, she was cremated and interred alongside her husband in the memorial. The photograph on the right shows the original memorial in 1955.

Davison building columbariumIn 1969, Dr. Anlyan commissioned Dr. Forbus and Elon Clark to draw up plans for remodeling the memorial. Their design removed the original memorial, erected wood paneling and installed new plaques opposite the elevator. The renovation was completed in 1973 and featured 12 spaces honoring Dean Wilburt Davison, Harold Amoss, J. Deryl Hart, Wiley Forbus, Bessie Baker, William Perlzweig, Francis Swett, David T. Smith, George Eadie, F. Bayard Carter, Frederic Hanes, and Richard Lyman. The photograph on the left shows the memorial as it appears today.

In 1978, a second columbarium was designed and installed in the recently constructed Seeley G. Mudd building. The new space adorned two walls in the hallway of the Searle Center, one with 27 spaces and the other with 15. These spaces were reserved for faculty and spouses who have served with distinction as Department Chairmen, Deans, Vice Presidents, or other key academic administrators. Pictured below are the two walls of the original 42 spaces and the accompanying ledger of individuals interred. There have since been added 51 more spaces in the Searle Center location.   

With the creation of the new space in the Searle Center in 1978, Elon Clark suggested the duties of arranging interment in memorial be given to Medical Center Archivist and ordained minister, Jim Gifford. This service was performed by Gifford, and continued by his assistant, Charles Rutt, until Rutt’s retirement in 2005. Charge of the columbarium was then transferred to Pastoral Services.

Visit our website for more information or go see the displays in the Searle Center and Davison building entryways!Columbarium in the Searle Center