Christian Messa

Longtime UTMB orthopaedics faculty member creates professorship, award that recognize outstanding nursing faculty

Dr. E. Burke Evans made gifts in memory of sister, grandmother

GALVESTON, Texas—Dr. E. Burke Evans, a longtime orthopaedics faculty member at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, recently created a professorship and an award that recognize exceptional nursing faculty and alumni at the university.

The interim chair of UTMB’s Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation Department contributed to the Betty Lee Evans Nursing Professorship to increase the size of the endowment, which he created in December 2001. Evans established the professorship in memory of his grandmother and sister. Evans’ sister was named after his grandmother, who died when Evans’ father was 2 months old.

“My sister died at an early age, in her 40s,” said Evans, the Ashbel Smith Professor Emeritus of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation. “She was a teacher, but what she really wanted to become in life was a nurse. Since she didn’t get to do that, I thought it was appropriate to name the nursing award and endowment after her, as well as my grandmother.”

The Betty Lee Evans Professorship was awarded last year to its first faculty recipient, Dr. Linda R. Rounds. Rounds is the director of UTMB’s Post-Master’s Degree Geriatric Nurse Program and holds a faculty appointment in the university’s Department of Family Medicine.

Evans also contributed to the Betty Lee Evans Nursing Excellence Award, an accolade he established in 2001 to reward UTMB School of Nursing graduates who have made exemplary contributions in the university’s health care system. Jane E. Reinhart-Gonzalez, a clinical educator in the Educational Resource Center, and Paula R. Castonguay, a nurse clinician in the General Surgery and Renal Transplant units, earned the Evans Nursing Excellence Award in 2003.

Dr. Pamela G. Watson, School of Nursing dean, said Evans’ contribution will help the university provide well-deserved recognition to its nurses. “It is difficult for me to adequately express my gratitude to Dr. Evans for his unwavering support of nursing,” said Watson, the Rebecca Sealy Distinguished Centennial Chair. “His two latest gifts are most meaningful. The nursing excellence award allows us to publicly recognize the high ideals that characterize the clinical practice of our graduates. The professorship will reward educators who maintain the rigorous standards in nursing education that are the School of Nursing’s hallmark.”

Evans, who served as UTMB’s chief of orthopaedics from 1965 to 1992, earned his bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and his M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine. He completed a rotating internship and surgical residency training at the Alameda County Hospital in Oakland, Calif. Evans’ postgraduate training also included a rotating internship at St. Mary’s Infirmary in Galveston, orthopaedic residency training at UTMB and pediatric orthopaedic residency training at Houston’s Hermann Hospital. He started his career as an orthopaedic surgery instructor at UTMB in 1953. Evans became a full professor in 1965 and began serving as chief of the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery. He was appointed to the Ashbel Smith Professorship in 1991. Two years later, UTMB officials dedicated the plaza between the Administration Building and John Sealy Hospital in Evans’ name.

Evans has written numerous scientific articles and book chapters and was associate editor of the journal Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology and the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery. Evans is recognized for his research in cerebral palsy and osteoarthritis and for his classification of musculoskeletal changes resulting from burns. He continues to participate in the management of patients with severe burns in the rehabilitation department of the Galveston Shriners Hospital. Last year, he received the John P. McGovern, M.D. Award in Oslerian Medicine in recognition of his compassionate care to patients.

An ardent UTMB supporter, Evans has contributed to such programs and initiatives as the Estelle Greenwalt Orthopaedic Education Fund, E. Burke Evans Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery and E. Burke Evans Orthopaedic Research Fund. Evans is also a member of the UTMB President’s Cabinet, an organization of Houston-Galveston area community and business leaders, UTMB faculty and staff, and alumni who provide financial resources to help advance the mission of the academic health center.

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