John Kralewski received his B.S. in Pharmacy in 1956, his Masters in Hospital Administration in 1962, and his Ph.D. in 1969, all from the University of Minnesota. He founded the Institute for Health Services Research at the University in 1977 and served as director from 1977 until 1998.

Interview Abstract
John Kralewski begins by describing his background, including his education, his service in the Air Force, his early career, and why he went into the health sciences. He discusses his experiences as student in pharmacy and then in hospital administration at the UMN. He discusses the Program in Hospital Administration at UMN; hospital administration as a field in the 1960s and 1970s; the School of Public Health; funding; his research; efforts to introduce mandatory generic prescribing in the 1960s; pharmacy as a profession; nursing; the divisions within the School of Public Health in the 1960s; leadership in the health sciences at the UMN; University Hospitals; other hospitals in the Twin Cities; and the University of Minnesota’s decision to sell University Hospitals to Fairview. He talks about Gaylord Anderson, James Hamilton, Cherie Perlmutter, Stephen Joseph, Lyle French, Frank Cerra, and others in leadership and administrative position in the Health Sciences. In his second interview, John Kralewski discusses his experiences as assistant vice president for Health Sciences. He talks about the Center for Health Services Research; health services research at Minnesota and around the country; working with the Minnesota state legislature; rural health care; the Health Information Foundation (at the University of Chicago); moving the Center for Health Services Research out of the vice president’s office and into the School of Public Health; the Hospital Administration program; graduate programs in Public Health; relations between the Academic Health Center administration and the state legislature; the relationship between the health sciences units, and health sciences education and funding. He discusses Lyle French, Neal Vanselow, and Robert Kane.

Biographical Sketch
John Kralewski was born in Wisconsin. He received his BS in Pharmacy in 1956, his MHA in 1962, and his Ph.D. in 1969, all from the University of Minnesota. From 1957-60, he worked as a medical administrative officer in the US Air Force. In 1964, he joined the faculty of the UMN’s School of Public Health in the Program in Hospital Administration. He moved to the University of Colorado Medical School in 1968 as a professor in and as director of the Division of Health Administration. In 1977, he returned to the UMN as Assistant to the Vice President for Health Sciences and Professor and Director of the Institute for Health Services Research of the School of Public Health. He remained in these positions until 1998. He was named William Wallace Professor of Health Services Research and Administration in 1985.

Interview Transcript
JKralewski.pdf