A Bold Move

UAB Dedicates New Hazelrig-Salter Radiation Oncology Center

Michael Waldrum, Will Ferniany, Ray Watts, James Bonner, Jim Limbaugh, Merle Salter, Edward Partridge, Paul Salter, Chip Hazelrig, and Carol Garrison

Supporters were welcomed into the new Hazelrig-Salter Radiation Oncology Center at a dedication ceremony at UAB on February 28. At the dedication, UAB President Carol Garrison thanked fund-raising campaign co-chairs Foots Parnell, Barbara Royal, and Dianne Mooney as well as the Comprehensive Cancer Center Supporters Board for their support of the project.

Planning and construction started several years ago and was made possible through a still-growing fund-raising campaign that now totals 400-plus supporters. To date, more than $10.5 million in donations has come to UAB for the new center. The 50,000-square-foot center is one of the most technologically advanced facilities of its size in the country with a radiosurgery center that can accommodate all aspects of treatment planning and delivery.

Chip Hazelrig, Paul and Merle Salter, and Lynn Hazelrig

UAB hosts especially thanked Chip Hazelrig, who made the initial gift and chose to name the new radiation oncology center in honor of his parents—the late Virginia and William Hazelrig—and their longtime friends, Birmingham physicians Merle and Paul Salter. Merle Salter, M.D., is the former chair of UAB’s Department of Radiation Oncology.

The Jim Limbaugh Family Park of Hope Honoring Phyllis Limbaugh, which adjoins the center, became a reality thanks to donor Jim Limbaugh, a Birmingham businessman who lost his wife to lymphoma in 1981.

“We are so grateful to Chip Hazelrig, Jim Limbaugh, and all those who participated in the Rays of Hope campaign,” says Shirley Salloway Kahn, Ph.D., vice president for development, alumni, and external relations. “Through their ongoing devotion and dedication, this state-of-the-art facility became a reality.”

Maintaining the Momentum / Summer 2010