David Knapp to Serve as Honorary Student Marshal at Commencement Ceremony

School of Pharmacy graduates will line up on May 18 to receive PharmDs in part because of a man joining them on stage.

By Chris Zang
April 30, 2012

School of Pharmacy graduates will line up on May 18 to receive PharmDs in part because of a man joining them on stage.

David A. Knapp’s first initiative as acting dean in 1989 was to move the School of Pharmacy from a three-year baccalaureate program to a four-year Doctor of Pharmacy curriculum. Although changing to a PharmD program had been debated across the country since the 1950s, the School was one of the first in the East to do so. It took four years to overcome opposition, but Knapp—seeing the expanding role of pharmacists that would require an education more focused on clinical services and patient care—persevered, bringing national prominence to the School.

After earning his BS in pharmacy and PhD at Purdue, Knapp spent seven years on the Ohio State faculty before coming to Maryland in 1971. He served as dean from 1989 to 2007, and now teaches at the School’s satellite campus at the Universities at Shady Grove, another of his successful initiatives. As a driving force behind doubling the size of Pharmacy Hall, Knapp looks back with pride at the School’s success.

“I am proud to have been part of the profound growth of the School of Pharmacy over the past 40 years,” says Knapp, who plans to retire in June. “As dean, this meant not only forging a strategic direction, but also working to attain the necessary resources to achieve our goals. This involved recruiting faculty, who needed space, and led to collaborating with the School of Medicine to build Health Sciences Facility II to support pharmaceutical sciences research.

“Saratoga Building space was obtained for the Maryland Poison Center and the Department of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research. The Pharmacy Learning Center—conceived as a temporary classroom space during the 14 years it took to attain funds to build the Pharmacy Hall Addition—now serves as the nerve center for the School’s computer and network services. I’m pleased that the sound financial position of the School has permitted our current dean, Natalie Eddington, to continue our progress at an accelerating pace.”