The Department of Human Genetics had its origin in 1941, when a Heredity Clinic was established under the aegis of the Laboratory of Vertebrate Biology and the University Hospital.
The clinic owed its inception to the interest of Professor Lee Dice, Director of the Laboratory, in the field of human genetics, and his conviction that the time was right to initiate a clinic, which could serve both to counsel persons with inherited disorders and as a basis for research into this subject.
In 1950, the Laboratory of Vertebrate Biology was reorganized as an Institute of Human Biology, and in 1956, with Dr. Dice's retirement, those parts of Institute activity concerned with human genetics became the nucleus for the present Department of Human Genetics.
Originally the department was housed in some of the older hospital buildings, but in 1961, in consequence of a gift from the Buhl Foundation of Detroit, matched in magnitude by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the means were at hand for the construction of a building designed specifically for the needs of modern human genetics.
This building, the Lawrence D. Buhl Research Center for Human Genetics, was completed in 1964. When Medical Science II was built, the Department of Human Genetics was allocated additional space immediately adjacent to the Buhl Building.
The departmental facilities are among the most extensive in the United States today. Because of this early start in the field, the University has played a very significant role in the explosive development of the field of human genetics in recent years.
Fred J. Hodges
The University of Michigan, an Encyclopedic Survey Supplement, Page 193, 194
