An endowed chair is an elite faculty appointment that carries with it a stable, guaranteed source of funding to support the chair-holder’s work.  It is the most prestigious honor a university can confer upon a faculty member.  As the Medical University strives to strengthen its reputation as a world-class academic medical center, it must actively recruit and retain world-renowned physicians and scientists with an expertise and interest in psychiatry and other specialties. Endowed chairs are perhaps the most important tools we have to bring these individuals here to our campus.  A chair is usually established by a pool of philanthropically provided funds totaling $1 million, which is invested in a professionally managed fund. The principal, or “corpus,” remains in this fund, generating interest income that is used to attract and support a leading scientist and/or educator.  Because only the investment income may be expended, the corpus portion of the endowed chair exists in perpetuity, creating a permanent means of supporting continued progress in a vital field of medical research.

• Enables MUSC to attract the best educators and researchers in the country.
• Provides a permanent, stable source of departmental funding. 
• Establishes the university as a leader in the chairholder’s field.
• Helps recruit the nation’s top students.
• Attracts additional research dollars.
• Establishes strength and perpetuity within a given field of study, promoting continual discovery and understanding.

As the state’s leading center of psychiatric research, education, and patient care, the MUSC Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences will play a central role in addressing these health care challenges. It is therefore vital that the department continue to enjoy strong leadership, in perpetuity.  The Layton McCurdy Endowed Chair will enable the department to do just that, by providing it with a permanent means of recruiting, retaining and supporting a world-renowned authority in psychiatric education, patient care and research to occupy the chairman’s seat. Moreover, this chair will serve as a fitting tribute to the life and career of one of this state’s most admired physicians, educators and public servants, R. Layton McCurdy, M.D.

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