University Health System at 100

By Nelson W. Wolff

At the start of the twentieth century, South Texas was a melting of troops training for deployment in World War I and thousands of refugees fleeing the Mexican Revolution. With the influx of immigrants and injured veterans returning from the war, the area was in desperate need of a charity hospital to serve the burgeoning community. The city of San Antonio and Bexar County each contributed half the funding to build the Robert B. Green Memorial Hospital, named for a socially conscious county judge and Texas state senator.

The Green hospital filled a critical need and was completed just in time to care for victims of the 1918 flu epidemic. One hundred years later, the hospital is one of many in the University Health System, which continues to fulfill the diverse health care needs of South Texas.University Health System at 100 chronicles the compelling history of a nationally recognized teaching hospital and its network of outpatient healthcare centers with archival photographs and extended captions. Highlights include the 1955 creation of the property tax funded Bexar County Hospital District; the 1968 founding of the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio; now called UT Health San Antonio; and the 1999 opening of the Texas Diabetes Institute. The book also looks ahead to the next one hundred years as medical advancements and concerns and the needs of the South Texas region continue to evolve. Whatever the future of health care holds, the University Health System aims to continue the mission that has guided it from the beginning—to treat all those in need in the community with compassion, respect and skill.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Maverick Books
• Release date: Sep 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781595348562

Nelson W. Wolff

Nelson W. Wolff has represented Bexar County in state, city and county political offices since 1971, when he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives. He then was elected to the Texas Senate in 1973, the San Antonio City Council in 1987 and then served as Mayor of San Antonio from 1991 to 1995. He currently serves as Bexar County Judge, a position he was appointed to in 2001 and has since been elected to three times, most recently in November 2010. He is only the second person in more than a century to serve as both Mayor of San Antonio and Bexar County Judge.Wolff has authored four books and is an avid reader and collector of 20th Century first editions. Challenge of Change, published in 1975, is about Wolff’s experience in the Texas Legislature and the Constitutional Convention he participated in and for which he was largely responsible. Baseball for Real Men reflects on life and Wolff’s love of the game. Mayor: An Inside View of San Antonio Politics 1981-1995 takes a look at local politics during his and Henry Cisneros’ years leading the city. Wolff’s most recent book Transforming San Antonio: An Insider’s View of the AT&T Center, Toyota, the PGA Village and the River Walk Extension explores the four major developments in recent history that have provided urban renewal and growth for the city.Wolff holds a bachelor of business administration from St. Mary’s University and a doctorate of jurisprudence from St. Mary’s University School of Law. Throughout his life, Wolff has excelled in both politics and business.In 1961, Wolff, his father and two brothers formed Alamo Enterprises Building Supplies, which they grew to an eight-store chain before selling in 1977. A year later with his brothers George and Gary, Wolff founded Sun Harvest Farms, a successful chain of natural food stores. They sold the nine-store chain in 1999.Together, Wolff and his wife, Tracy, have six children and five grandchildren.

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