You know more than you think you know.
That was Dr. Robert Garis’ favorite thing to tell his students before their exams.
It’s also the phrase that’s repeated most often on the wall of his memorial Facebook group, which was created to honor the beloved teacher, colleague and researcher who died of cancer on Nov. 13 at age 59.
“We have students from coast to coast who are commenting on his passing and how much he meant to them,” said Dr. Bartholomew Clark, associate professor of Pharmacy Sciences who worked closely with Garis. “He was very popular with the students.”
Garis, who was an associate professor of pharmacy sciences, had been with Creighton’s School of Pharmacy and Health Professions since 1999. He spent years researching drug-pricing policies and the practices of pharmacy benefit management companies, which are the links between pharmaceutical corporations, employee prescription drug programs and retail pharmacies.
“He was dedicated to his subject, in examining the inefficiencies and inequities that can be found in the pharmacy benefit management industry,” Clark said. “He was a great colleague.”
Garis was nationally known for his PBM research, and he often traveled the country to present his findings, Clark said.
Dr. Mark Siracuse, associate professor of Pharmacy Sciences, said Garis was the reason he joined Creighton’s School of Pharmacy.
“For several of us faculty members, he’s the reason why we came to Creighton University,” Siracuse said.
“He’s the first person I spoke to when I was recruited, and I knew right then and there that this was the place I wanted to come.
“He was just very welcoming, very warm – a very honest individual.”Clark agreed.
“He was the kind of man that would shake your hand and look you in the eye, and if he said he was going to do something, he did it,” Clark said. “He kept his word. Not everybody’s like that.”
Garis’ honesty extended to his students as well.
Every summer, the School of Pharmacy hosts an orientation for its distance students. During orientation, each professor puts on a presentation about what they’ll be teaching students during their first year of pharmacy school.
“When Dr. Garis would do his presentation, he would get up in front of the class and say, ‘I just want you all to know that this is the only time all semester that I’m going to be nervous,'” Clark said.
“People really appreciated that he was willing to show his human side – that he wasn’t just in ‘professor mode,’ that he had a human vulnerability that we all share but don’t often show.”
Garis will be missed by everyone who knew him, Clark said.
“I am very saddened by his death,” said Katie Schoeneck, a first-year Pharmacy student, “As is everyone in the School of Pharmacy and health professions.”
“He was a wonderful man – kind, generous,” Clark said. “He had a great sense of humor, and he was a wonderful person to work with. He was just a great guy.”
He was survived by his wife Betty, of Omaha; son Clayton Wayman of Benton, Kan.; and daughters Lexie Huckaby of Charlotte, N.C., and Beky Mooneyham of Owasso, Okla.