Richard Coar, son of Edson R. Coar, BS ’28 — who graduated from the school in the days prior to establishment of the Doctor of Pharmacy program — has made a $2 million endowed gift to the school in memory of his parents. Room 104 in the John Stauffer Pharmaceutical Sciences Center will be named the Edson and Muriel Coar Conference Room. Support generated through the endowment will provide student scholarships and a dean’s discretionary fund for special projects.
After graduating from the school, Edson Coar worked for Horton and Converse pharmacy in Hollywood. He joined Abbott Laboratories as a sales representative in 1936. His tenure there was interrupted when we was commissioned during World War II as a captain managing distribution of medical supplies from San Francisco to the Pacific theater.
Following the war, he became district manager for Abbott, working from Seattle. He was promoted to divisional manager in San Francisco and, later, Los Angeles. During his time in Southern California, he enjoyed watching football with his brother-in-law Earl Oakley, another Trojan. Coar’s career culminated in writing a history of Abbott at its home office in North Chicago.
Coar was active in the American Pharmacists Association and local pharmacy organizations in California, Arizona and Washington state, where his son currently resides. The elder Coar was also active with the Lions Club and Masonic Temple.
He attributed much of his success to his wife. According to Richard Coar, “He said so many times, ‘None of this would have been possible without Muriel.’”