Hal & Marilyn Wand
Alumni, Class of 1979 and Class of 1974
Hal and Marilyn Wand’s memories are endowed with Wildcat pride from their respective times at The University of Arizona’s College of Pharmacy.
“In the 30 years since I graduated, I haven’t missed but one Homecoming,” Hal says with an air of nostalgia, adding that he’s driven in the homecoming parade and their son, Peter, completed his undergraduate degree at UA.
When Peter attended UA, his fraternity bedroom window looked right into another building’s window where, coincidentally, his mother lived as a sorority sister during her time at UA.
Marilyn, a Class of 1974 COP alumna originally from Detroit, Mich., was drawn to Tucson because of the warm weather and beautiful campus.
During her time at UA, Marilyn was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi sorority, where she felt the people were the best thing about her years here.
“In my sorority there were people from all over the country,” Marilyn says. “You got to broaden your horizons.”
Marilyn became interested in pharmacy because she wanted to work in health care and saw a lack of women in the field.
“It was always the man in the drugstore when I was growing up; it was never the woman,” Marilyn says. “I just thought I could make a difference.”
After graduating from COP Marilyn got a job as a pharmacist at the Phoenix Baptist hospital, where she met her future husband, Hal, who was working as a hospital pharmacy buyer.
A Chicago, Ill., native, Hal had received a bachelor of science degree in biology with emphasis on genetics from California State University in 1974. After deciding he disliked the lack of human contact working in genetics, Hal started looking at pharmacy because it gave personal contact, a better salary and more job opportunities.
Hal started pharmacy school at UA in 1976 and spent three years traveling back and forth from Tucson to Phoenix, working at the Sun City Hospital every weekend. Hal graduated with his bachelor of science in pharmacy in 1979.
Hal and Marilyn married in 1977 while he was working on his pharmacy degree.
Today, Marilyn, who enjoys making jewelry, scrapbooking and knitting in her spare time, has worked in correctional pharmacy for 11 years at the Arizona Department of Corrections. Before that she worked in retail pharmacy and hospital pharmacy.
Hal, who loves traveling and woodworking, is executive director of the Arizona Board of Pharmacy.
“The director of the pharmacy board would come down every year when I was in college,” Hal says. “I saw the director come down, and I told my wife I wanted that job. Twelve years later, I got that job. Not too many people actually get to do what they tell their wife they want to do.”
Hal and Marilyn Wand now reside in Buckeye, Ariz., with their standard poodle, Chester.