{"id":464,"date":"2026-02-27T09:11:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/?p=464"},"modified":"2026-02-27T09:11:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:11:19","slug":"honoring-dr-william-mclendon-and-a-legacy-of-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/2026\/02\/27\/honoring-dr-william-mclendon-and-a-legacy-of-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Honoring Dr. William McLendon and a Legacy of Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-465\" src=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2026\/02\/McLendon.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"220\" height=\"229\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2026\/02\/McLendon.jpg 572w, https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2026\/02\/McLendon-289x300.jpg 289w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 220px) 100vw, 220px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Throughout his 29 years in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UNC School of Medicine, John Hammond, PhD, knew that one person stood at the center of everything he learned about leadership, integrity, and building something that lasts: Dr. William \u201cBill\u201d McLendon.<\/p>\n<p>To honor his former vice chair and the man he calls \u201cextraordinarily fair\u2026 real\u2026 and a wonderful chairman,\u201d Dr. Hammond has created the William McLendon MD \u201956 Resident and Fellows Enrichment and Travel Fund, supporting travel, research and academic enrichment for pathology residents and fellows.<\/p>\n<p>The fund reflects a priority the department urgently feels today: at a time when budgets tighten, the opportunities that broaden young physicians\u2019 horizons are often the first to disappear. Dr. Hammond hopes his gift will help ensure that trainees can continue exploring the conferences, institutions and experiences that expand their vision of what\u2019s possible.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/unchealthfoundation.org\/gifts-at-work\/honoring-dr-william-mclendon-and-a-legacy-of-leadership\/\">Read more about Dr. Hammond&#8217;s gift.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Throughout his 29 years in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UNC School of Medicine, John Hammond, PhD, knew that one person stood at the center of everything he learned about leadership, integrity, and building something that lasts: Dr. William \u201cBill\u201d McLendon. To honor his former vice chair and the man he calls &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/2026\/02\/27\/honoring-dr-william-mclendon-and-a-legacy-of-leadership\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Honoring Dr. William McLendon and a Legacy of Leadership\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112547,"featured_media":465,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-464","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-stories","odd"],"acf":[],"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2026\/02\/McLendon.jpg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2026\/02\/McLendon-289x300.jpg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2026\/02\/McLendon.jpg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2026\/02\/McLendon.jpg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1470\/2026\/02\/McLendon-150x150.jpg","featured_image_alt":"","category_details":[{"name":"Alumni Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/category\/alumni-stories\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112547"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=464"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":467,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/464\/revisions\/467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}