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The Sandra Richardson Baxter and John D. Baxter Endowed Scholarship in Laboratory Medicine
Sandra R. Baxter, B.S. ’62, has seen her profession change since she graduated from the Medical Technology Program at the University of Washington. For example, computers now play an important role, performing operations that technologists used to handle.
One thing that hasn’t changed over the years is the need for scholarship support. To help meet that need, Baxter and her husband, UW engineering alumnus John Baxter, are creating the Sandra Richardson Baxter and John D. Baxter Endowed Scholarship in Laboratory Medicine. The fund will support students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in medical technology.
The seed for the scholarship was planted many years ago, when Baxter’s high-school health education teacher suggested she look into a career in medical technology. Choosing a school wasn’t difficult for the Seattle native, who knew the caliber of the UW’s program.
One difficulty stood in the way: money. Baxter’s family didn’t have enough money to send her to school. Happily, the problem was solved when she received the Carkeek Memorial Scholarship, a local scholarship that, at the time, was given to two graduating students from each high school in Seattle.
The scholarship paid for Baxter’s tuition and some of her books. For many years afterward, she remembered the suggestion that came with the gift: the donors hoped that scholarship recipients would eventually create scholarships themselves.
After graduation, Baxter entered her profession. For seven years, she worked at Seattle Children’s, most of that time as head technologist for hematology. She then worked for 10 years in a private lab. Forced to retire in 1980 because of a work-related medical problem, Baxter still has vivid and fond memories of her profession: helping doctors with bone-marrow results, performing manual chemistry tests, and drawing blood from patients.
Blood work is interesting, says Baxter, because “you have to look for minute details” when differentiating among diseases. The work was fulfilling, too. “You saw how the laboratory helped the doctors diagnose children’s problems,” says Baxter. Despite all the changes in health care since Baxter’s graduation, medical technologists are still crucial to the profession of medicine. And the current crop of “med tech” students at the UW is quite impressive, says Baxter.
In 2002, when the UW Medical Technology Program celebrated its 50th anniversary, Baxter and her husband, John, had the chance to hear some of the students talk about their research projects. A few months later, the couple spoke with Mary Lampe, B.S. ’68, director of the Medical Technology Program. In passing, Lampe mentioned that she was going to create a student scholarship fund. Lampe’s generosity was the final bit of inspiration the Baxters needed. They promptly created their own scholarship in the Department of Laboratory Medicine.
The Baxters recently have made further commitments, arranging for a portion of their charitable remainder trust to augment the Baxter Scholarship, with another portion to support medical technology faculty. Their generosity will be long remembered by both faculty and students in the Department of Laboratory Medicine.
2007
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