Medical College of Alabama. Office of the Dean.

The four-year Medical College of Alabama was established in Birmingham, Alabama in 1944 and became operational in 1945. The dean had responsibility for medical College programs and reported directly to the president of the University of Alabama. Dr. James J. Durrett served as the second full-time dean of the program. An Alabama native born in 1889, Durrett accepted the deanship of the Medical College of Alabama in the Spring of 1951. He had little success as dean. Continued funding problems concerned him during his entire tenure as did the lack of space at the Medical Center. Dr. O.C. Carmichael, president of the University of Alabama, organized a committee to make recommendations concerning the administration of the Medical Center in the Summer of 1953. This committee (Known as the Duckett Jones Committee) prepared a report that outlined specific ways in which the Medical Center's administration could be improved. Upon release of this report, Durrett resigned and stepped down in January 1955.