Black Heritage month activities, sponsored by the UCSF Black Caucus, will begin Monday, Feb. 2, with a tribute to Dr. Thomas N. Burbridge, the late UCSF pharmacology professor who in the 1950s and 1960s was recognized for humanitarian work overseas and civil rights advocacy in this country. A visual display in honor of Burbridge will be presented in the Medical Sciences Building lobby on that Monday. A commemoration to Burbridge, including a talk by Freeman Bradley, a UCSF retiree and a founder of the campus Black Caucus, will be held on Wednesday, Feb. 4, noon to 1 p.m., in N 217.

A chemist, Burbridge was assigned in the 1940s by the Navy to UCSF. He remained here after his discharge, earned a medical degree in 1948, and later became a graduate student and fellow in the department of pharmacology.

He interrupted his graduate work, however, to spend three years at the University of Indonesia, Djakarta, after revolution in that country, and played a key role in establishing a medical school there. He later returned to UCSF and completed his PhD. Burbridge joined the faculty in 1956 and conducted research on the pharmacology of alcohol. Burbridge also continued public service, serving for four years as chairman of the education committee of the NAACP, and then president of the organization. He was credited for prompting important civil rights changes in the areas of public housing, employment and education. Burbridge died of cancer in 1972 at the age of 51. One of the annual UCSF Chancellor’s awards for public service is named in his honor.

Black Heritage month, which this year carries the theme “Unity in the Community,” will include several talks, films and other events. See schedule.

1st appeared 1/28/98

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