• McLane family gift to help renovate new home of Baylor nursing

    Baylor nursing building renovation rendering

    Thanks to “Fixer Upper,” the Baylor family is more familiar with home renovation than ever. And now, thanks to a gift from the McLane family, Baylor nursing is preparing to renovate its new home.

    In 2014, Baylor reached an agreement with the Baptist General Convention of Texas to purchase the facility formerly known as “the Baptist Building” as a new home for Baylor’s Louise Herrington School of Nursing (LHSON). Last year, a lead gift from Louise Herrington Ornelas provided key funds for that purchase.

    Then last week, following their annual Homecoming meeting, the Baylor Board of Regents announced a gift from Regent Emeritus Drayton McLane Jr. (BBA ’58), his wife, Elizabeth, and the McLane family toward the renovation of the building. Work is expected to begin in January and be completed in the fall of 2018.

    Once complete, the new Louise Herrington Nursing School Building will more than triple the available space for Baylor nursing students. (See the rendering above, and other renderings here.) However, they won’t have to move far; the site is just 3/10ths of a mile from their current home, and will keep LHSON adjacent to Dallas’ Baylor University Medical Center.

    The interest in healthcare is nothing new for the McLane family. Drayton McLane Jr. has served on the boards of both Baylor Health Care System and Scott & White Healthcare for nearly 30 years, including 14 years as board chair. In fact, he was the first chairman of the board after the two systems merged in 2013 to form Baylor Scott & White Health.

    “Our family has been very committed to Baylor University because of its Christian commitment to higher education and also to health care, and this is why we were interested in helping with a gift that will begin the building renovation for Baylor’s outstanding Louise Herrington School of Nursing,” McLane said. “We are hopeful that many other alumni of Baylor University will want to assist in creating a brighter future for health care.”

    (Interested in following the McLane family’s lead in supporting this new endeavor? Click here to join the effort.)

    Sic ’em, McLane family and Baylor nursing!