Frank P. Urso, M.D. Hall Dedicated

More than 100 friends, family, students, trustees, faculty and staff gathered as The University of Tampa today officially renamed the Kennedy Place residence hall after University alumnus and donor Frank P. Urso, M.D.

Although Urso was unable to attend the dedication ceremony, his daughter, Lillian Palmon spoke, saying UT made it possible for her father to become a physician and author, something he never could have dreamed of growing up in the Ybor City barrio as a child.

“UT made it possible for my father to get an education at a time when for most Latins there was no one to show them what an education was,” Palmon said.

She added that if her father were able to attend the dedication, he likely would have told the UT students to “dream your dream, and dream it big.”

Urso, a retired pathologist, recently gave The University of Tampa a $3 million gift.

After graduating from UT in 1957, Urso continued with medical school at the University of Miami, where he graduated with honors. Urso served as the director of pathology and clinical laboratories at three major hospitals, and worked as professor of pathology at Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine — where he was twice honored as lecturer of the year.

Frank P. Urso, M.D. Hall is located on Kennedy Boulevard across from Plant Hall. It is 11 stories high and houses 182 students in 122 single apartments and 30 double units.

In 2005, Urso published a memoir, A Stranger in the Barrio: Memoir of a Tampa Sicilian (iUniverse, 2005). Each resident of the residence hall will receive a copy of Urso’s book.