As president and chief executive officer of Dallas County's Parkland Memorial Hospital since 1982, Ron Anderson has provided superb leadership of one of society's most beleaguered and overloaded institutions - the public hospital. Dr. Anderson has guided Parkland through its greatest period of modernization. Under his leadership, Parkland has initiated significant improvements in the quality of patient care, both in that major hospital and in the community clinics that bring health care to patients in their own neighborhoods. A visionary leader at the state and national levels, Dr. Anderson advocated a state law prohibiting private hospitals in Texas from transferring patients to public hospitals solely because they cannot pay for their care. This law, the first of its kind in the United States, was the model for federal legislation extending this patient protection nationwide. Ron Anderson is a master teacher and scholar at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center as well as a practicing physician who embodies the higher standards of compassionate and innovative care. For his accomplishments as a hospital leader, public health reformer, and medical healer, SMU is proud to award Ron Anderson the degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa.