(View the slide show above to see the portraits of Rudolph and Ann Rork Light in Light Hall, a photo from the day Light Hall was dedicated, and more)
Rudolph A. Light Hall was dedicated in 1977 and houses laboratories, offices and classrooms, most notably the large and busy lecture halls on the second floor.
Rudolph A. Light, MD, was from a well-to-do family that made its money from the Upjohn Company, a major pharmaceutical company for much of the 20th century. His father, S. Rudolph Light, had been mayor of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
The younger Light earned a degree in English and archeology from Yale University, studied at Oxford University in England, and earned his MD from Vanderbilt in 1939.
One often-told story about Light has to do with his generosity toward his medical school classmates. He knew that, due to the Great Depression, many of his classmates were having a hard time having enough money to live on. He wanted to quietly do something to help, so he let it be known that he kept a charge account at a restaurant on 21st Avenue South and allowed any medical student to eat there and charge it to his account. There were several of his classmates who later said they might have had to drop out of medical school if it hadn’t been for his generosity at the diner.
After a residency and military service during World War II, Light joined the faculty of the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and held various leadership positions as the school grew, including director of Surgical Research. In 1953, he arranged construction of the S. Rudolph Light Laboratory for Surgical Research (funded by and named in honor of his father). In 1958, he returned to England in the role of Visiting Surgeon at Oxford, which he held for five years, and in 1964 began service on the Vanderbilt University Board of Trust, where he served until his death in 1970.
Light’s support of Vanderbilt continued even after his death, as his estate helped fund numerous projects, including the construction of Light Hall.
Light’s portrait overlooks the busy third floor lobby of the building that bears his name, and to the right of that portrait is a portrait of his wife, Ann Rork Light. The portraits of the Lights were presented by Mrs. Light to Vanderbilt when Light Hall was dedicated in 1977.
Mrs. Light had married Rudolph in 1960, but even before that, she had led an interesting life.
Her father was a Hollywood producer in the days of silent films, and she starred in several movies, including “The Notorious Lady” and “The Blonde Saint.” Her co-stars were some pretty big names from that time, including Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Walter Pidgeon, and Will Rogers — who, in addition to being a co-star, was also her godfather.
In 1932 she married J. Paul Getty, one of the richest men in the world. It was his fourth marriage and her first. The marriage lasted three years and the couple had two children, John Paul Getty Jr. and Gordon Getty. Mrs. Light would marry three other times before her marriage to Rudolph Light.
She died in 1988 in Vanderbilt University Hospital of emphysema and lung cancer, and she and Rudolph Light are buried alongside each other in West Palm Beach, Florida. According to her front-page obituary in the VUMC newspaper MedCom (later the VUMC Reporter), “Mrs. Light provided for medical scholarships and established a trust that will one day benefit biomedical research at Vanderbilt.”
(Thanks to James Thweatt and Chris Ryland for fact-checking)
