WWAMI Spokane Endowed Scholarship in Medicine
EST. 2011
Please address your letter to:
John and Ann Coulter, Marian Smith and Daniel and Morgan Smith
John Coulter worked at the University of Washington for 30 years, retiring in 2008 as executive director of health sciences and associate vice president of UW Medicine. Ann Coulter volunteered for the School of Medicine, serving as joint president of the Friends of the UW School of Medicine for two years. John and Ann moved to Spokane, Wash., in 2010 and became charter members of the Friends of WWAMI Spokane in 2011. Both currently serve as members of the UW Medicine Scholarship and Student Support Committee. They are committed to encouraging UW medical students to come to Spokane for their medical education and to making Spokane a friendly and supportive place to train and, eventually, to practice medicine.
Jonathan A. Holloway, M.D., received his B.S. from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1952 and graduated from the UW School of Medicine in 1956. Following an internship at San Francisco City & County Hospital from 1956–57, he served as a flight surgeon in the USAF for the following 3 years. Dr. Holloway was stationed at Donaldson AFB in Greenville, SC, home to an entire wing of C-124 transports. Among his several missions, he was assigned to follow and service SAC B-36s as they were sent out on various assignments. This resulted in considerable worldwide travel. There were several trips to Europe and the Middle East following the bombers. Because of a crash of one airplane in Antarctica, he traveled to Christchurch, New Zealand, and on to McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. The assignment lasted for about six weeks, shuttling between New Zealand and Antarctica, until the ice melted and the airplanes no longer had a “field” there on which to land.
Dr. Holloway became interested in ophthalmology under the tutoring of a Greenville ophthalmologist. Following his recommendation, Holloway did his residency in Philadelphia at the Wills Eye Hospital. At the time, it was the second largest eye hospital in the world (only Moorfields in England was larger). The program trained 21 residents at a time; in a totally unexpected and humbling experience, his fellow residents selected him to be their chief resident during his final year of training.
Dr. Holloway started his career in a small private practice in Spokane, Wash., in 1962; in 1968, he joined the Rockwood Clinic, working there until 1992 when he joined another private practice, finally retiring in 2002. Dr. Holloway notes that ophthalmology experienced unbelievable changes and improvements over the 40 years he was involved, and he feels it was and is a challenging and gratifying profession.
Although a Seattle native, Spokane has been his home for almost fifty years. Dr. Holloway was ordained an Episcopal deacon in 1976, serving in that role for the past 36 years at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.
Marian Elizabeth (Larson) Smith was born August 24, 1917, in Kingston, Penn., to Joseph and Martha Mott Larson. In the early 1920s, the family, after a toss of a coin to decide their destination of Florida or California, left on a cross-country car trip for Los Angeles. The trip took three months, with breakdowns and stops for odd jobs to replenish their coffers. They usually camped out, and Marian forever after disliked camping.
Marian lived in Los Angeles for more than 60 years. She married Alfred Smith in 1943, and they had three children. Marian and Al formed a successful company, Guardian Products, that produced walking aids and hospital supplies. The company is still in existence today.
Al and Marian spent much of their leisure time boating and discovered a love for Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. Upon selling Guardian in the early 1980s, they retired to Seattle. When Al died in 1990, Marian decided that Seattle was where she wanted to stay.
Over the last two decades, she has built a second life for herself, focused on philanthropy and with a special passion for education.
