"It was the summer before the first students and patients arrived, and we were still moving around furniture," Sessions said.
Sessions' description of the vacant hallways of the single medical school building in 1952 contrasted greatly with Wednesday's packed Brinkhous-Bullitt Cafeteria, one of nearly two dozen medical buildings now on campus.
"I must confess that I didn't consider it (would ever get this big)," Sessions said. "It's been growing."
Hundreds of health care employees gathered at the cafeteria to celebrate the 50th birthday of UNC Memorial Hospital and the School of Medicine on Wednesday.
Dressed in costumes from the past 50 years -- ranging from poodle skirts and scarves to beaded headbands and Afro wigs -- health care workers ate ice cream and cake to celebrate the anniversary.
At the ceremony, Eric Munson, president and CEO of UNC Hospitals, spoke on the hospital's brisk progress over the years.
"UNC Hospitals was once the best-kept secret," he said. "But now that secret's out."
Munson pointed to UNC Health Care's numerous awards for quality service but said its greatest role has been in the training of future North Carolina doctors.
Officials said that about 40 percent of UNC medical graduates remain in the state, as do a large percentage of physicians who complete their residencies here.
