Paving
the Path
Remembering
Bill “Willie” Sanders
This was the reality
experienced only a few
decades ago by Bill “Willie”
Sanders, who began his
career at the UF College of Medicine in
1957 as an anatomy laboratory technician
and retired in 1989 as a tenured associate
professor. When a door of opportunity
cracked open, Sanders busted off its
frame to pursue his love of science and
math. He left that doorway open behind
him, welcoming in future generations of
medical students whom he treated as if
they were his own flesh and blood. This is
Sanders’ legacy — the path he paved by
breaking down barriers to a more inclusive
environment at the UF College of Medicine
— and it continues to leave an imprint on
the campus culture.
Sanders was born in 1929, the youngest of
11 children, in Fort Motte, South Carolina. He
served in both World War II and the Korean
War before attending the Hampton Institute
(now Hampton University), a historically
black university in Virginia. Sanders attended
mortuary school in Chicago to become
an embalmer, a career that brought him
to Gainesville, where he worked in funeral
homes. In 1957, 13 years before the first
black physicians would graduate from the
UF College of Medicine, he was hired as an
anatomy lab technician, preparing cadavers
for medical instruction.
Sanders’ daughter, Paula Pringle,
remembers her father as a man consumed
by his passion for anatomy. As a child, Pringle
would spend days running around the UF
Health Science Center, a favorite doll or two
in tow. Her father would be working in the
anatomy lab, teaching himself all he could
about the human body in his spare time. Her
mother, Pauletta Sanders, worked nearby
as a histology technician, making slides of
human tissue.
EDUCATE
There was a time when
the doors to the UF
College of Medicine
were not open to all.
There was a time when,
because of the color of your skin or your identity or the beliefs that made
you different than the status quo, your opportunities at UF were limited.
You were relegated to support staff roles. There was a time when you
may have been formally accepted to UF, but that didn’t mean you were
accepted as an equal by peers and instructors.
10 | F LO R I DA P HYS I C IAN