If These Walls Could Talk

When first-year pharmacy student Jack Foster walks through the second floor of the Lee T. Todd Jr. Building, he sometimes slows down near a pair of glowing screens along the wall.

With a few taps, a familiar name appears.

Foster.

He scrolls to his grandfather Tom’s photo and biography, detailing years of leadership at the college and the pharmacy residency program. Another tap brings up his father, Scott, also an alumnus. Suddenly, the stories he grew up hearing at the dinner table about late nights at the hospital, lifelong friendships and the pride of having UK shape a career aren’t just family lore.

They’re part of the college’s history.

“It means so much more when you see it on the wall,” said the youngest Foster. “It makes you feel like you’re part of something bigger.”

That feeling of connection, belonging and continuity is exactly what the college hoped to create when it reimagined its history wall this past fall, transforming a static display into an interactive, living experience that celebrates the people who built UKCOP and the students who will carry it forward.

When the current building opened in 2010, the original wall told the story well: milestones, awards, photographs and names marking decades of progress since 1870.

But fifteen years later, the College had changed.

New faculty joined. Programs expanded. Research centers grew. Hundreds more alumni made their mark. And for the first time in 25 years, undergraduates returned through the new Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences program, bringing an entirely new generation into the building.

The old wall no longer reflected the full picture.

“It captured an important moment in time,” said Interim Dean Craig Martin, PharmD. “But our story didn’t stop in 2010.”

At the same time, alumni visiting campus, especially early graduates of the PharmD and residency programs, shared a common worry: some of the College’s most influential figures weren’t visible to current students and some stories risked being forgotten altogether.

If today’s learners didn’t know who shaped the profession before them, something important was missing.

So, instead of simply updating photos or adding plaques, college leadership asked a bigger question: What if history wasn’t something you just walked past? What if you could explore it more in-depth?

The answer became two large interactive touchscreens and a redesigned display that invites visitors to dive deeper.

Now, students, alumni and guests can search names, browse biographies and explore decades of photos and stories—far more than a traditional wall could ever hold. It’s less museum and more discovery: a first-year student looking up a professor, an alum finding former classmates, a family tracing generations of leaders.

Among those stories is Paul F. Parker, DSc, a pioneer in clinical pharmacy and the first director of pharmacy at UK Chandler Hospital from 1960 to 1984, whose vision built the college’s nationally recognized residency program. More than 635 residents have trained through a program rooted in the foundation he established, many of them benefiting from his vision without knowing his story. Now, they can.

Giving Parker’s story, and hundreds of others, a permanent home ensures those legacies aren’t lost to time or memory. 

The timing feels especially meaningful. As the college welcomes undergraduates again and prepares the next generation of pharmacists and researchers, understanding where it started matters more than ever.

Because history here isn’t just about the past. It’s about seeing what’s possible.

For students like Jack Foster, that connection is immediate. A quick search, a familiar name and suddenly decades of family history are right there on the screen.

Years from now, today’s students may return with children or grandchildren of their own, tapping through the display and saying, “There I am.”

These walls can talk. They tell the story of 156 years of UK College of Pharmacy history—and invite every student to add their own chapter.