F. Marie Hall

F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural and Community Health

From the back seat of her father’s car, Marie Hall formed some of her earliest memories of her father’s work. An only child, she remembers riding along as he made evening house calls to the residents in the rural areas around Big Spring. Ms. Hall’s father, G.T. Hall, M.D., was a rural primary care physician and surgeon in Big Spring. Armed with a stethoscope and a black medical bag, his most important medical tool was a compassionate heart.

This compassion, and a personal understanding of the challenges that residents of rural communities face in accessing health care, instilled a vision in Ms. Hall—improving rural health. Many years passed before the vision took shape. After high school, Ms. Hall left Big Spring to attend Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She graduated with degrees in English and French.

“I didn’t know how to do anything,” says Ms. Hall, “so I went to the Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School in New York City. Oh, that was a wonderful time.”

Years later, an accomplished business woman and philanthropist, Ms. Hall developed a passion for rural health.

Ms. Hall’s vision led her to TTUHSC 10 years ago, where she says a synergy took place between her vision of a premier program that prepares health care professionals to deliver care as a team, and that of David R. Smith, M.D., then TTUHSC president. Smith’s vision was exemplary rural health care. Since then, TTUHSC has benefited from Ms. Hall’s generosity with the establishment of an endowed chair for rural health and opening of the synergistic center, a recreational and leisure facility for students.

The advances in rural health made by the TTUHSC during the last decade culminated with the establishment of the F. Marie Hall Institute for Rural Health. Ms. Hall’s gift is one of the most significant private donations in the university’s history.