Oct. 5, 2015
To honor the late Florida Sen. Durell “Doc” Peaden, the College of Medicine hosted a ceremony in which the auditorium and rural medical program were both named for him. About 200 former colleagues, friends and family members came to remember the Crestview physician and legislator.
FSU President John Thrasher, Sen. Al Lawson, Senior Associate Dean Myra Hurt and Dean John P. Fogarty recounted Peaden stories — from his working with fellow legislators to create the college to his weekly calls to check on his “kids” after it was established.
In a video clip, Peaden described what it was like to create the country’s first medical school in more than 20 years. From the perspective of a family physician, he compared it to a breech birth – difficult but possible.
In the days leading up to the event, brass letters went up spelling out “DURELL PEADEN AUDITORIUM,” and a plaque was mounted on the atrium wall outside the auditorium so future students would know why it was named for him. Both the letters and the plaque were concealed. So during the ceremony, when Thrasher and Fogarty unveiled them, a round of applause went up from the crowd. A small replica of the plaque was presented to Peaden’s widow, Nancy Peaden, along with a bouquet of flowers. The unexpected gift caused her to weep. It read:
DURELL “DOC” PEADEN, M.D., J.D.: 1945-2015
Here at the College of Medicine, people mostly remember Durell Peaden as the influential legislator who in 2000 shepherded the bill establishing this school. But his support went well beyond legislative skill. He donated thousands of dollars in scholarship money, showed unwavering interest in students’ well-being and always looked out for the college’s best interests.
Another side to Peaden is more widely known in his rural hometown of Crestview. His neighbors knew him as “Doc,” the country doctor who offered patient-centered care before anyone even used that phrase. In a letter to the Crestview Bulletin after Peaden died, Mayor Davide Cadle wrote: “We remember Dr. Peaden as the physician who cared for our families and would sit by the bedside of a sick child, all night if necessary.”
No wonder Peaden was so passionate about this medical school designed to nurture compassionate physicians for underserved areas. No wonder he and College of Medicine godmother Myra Hurt clicked when they met in 1998 to brainstorm an unconventional new medical school. Separately, both had been envisioning the same apprentice-style program focused on primary care for all Floridians – the kind of care he’d been delivering for years.
Welcome to Doc Peaden’s auditorium.
