The University of Arizona Press

It was 1964. The job was to turn a dusty field into a top-ranking medical school. There were no buildings, no faculty, and no funds. Merlin K. DuVal accepted the challenge and won strong support as he began building the University of Arizona’s first College of Medicine.

Starting his adult life as a model in New York in the 1940s DuVal climbed his way up to being appointed Assistant Secretary of Health during Nixon’s administration and finally being instrumental in the founding of the University of Arizona’s medical school. While DuVal was a public man with a long list of accomplishments, this is also a deeply personal account in which a high-powered doctor discovers that his children grew up without really knowing him.

A year before his death, Dr. DuVal worked with journalist Linda Valdez to tell his story, and the real delight of this book is reading along as this man of remarkable intellectual curiosity examines his own life, his profession, and our society.