Nickel, Pharmacy Museum featured in Waring series

Ron Nickel, emeritus faculty and curator of the MUSC College of Pharmacy Alumni Association Museum, has been a long and successful collaborator with the Waring Historical Museum. So when the Waring wanted to feature the pharmacy museum in a new episode of “Waring Stories,” hosted by University Archivist Brooke Fox, they knew just who to call.

The episode "Inside the MUSC Pharmacy Museum" features views of some of the vintage equipment and materials housed in the pharmacy museum, with Nickel talking colorfully about some of the devices and medications.

“Thank you, Brooke," Nickel said, opening the episode after being introduced. "So today we’re talking about suppositories.” 

Nickel, professor emeritus of CPOS, joined MUSC in 1987 and has served the College in multiple capacities, including groundbreaking work in broadcast continuing education (CE) as well as running the compound lab and curating the MUSC Alumni Association Museum. As the head of continuing education, Nickel developed a network of 26 sites across the state that would broadcast two-hour distance learning CE courses from MUSC four times a year, via satellite. The show ran for 20 years, providing many of its students with better access to fill live-hour CE requirements. In 2001, the grateful Pharmacy Technician Educators Council honored him with the Phil Naut Award.

With students on campus, his work in the compounding lab and classroom, as coach for MUSC’s team in the national Student Pharmacist Compounding Competition, and as advisor to various students and student groups was recognized with the 2017 Mentor Award. Nickel also devotes time to serving the community through his advocacy for the homeless and work in the Hot Dog Ministry with colleague Wayne Weart