2008 Distinguished Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient

Stanley G. Tangalakis, BSPharm’52, is the chairman and owner of Mercury Medical, a Clearwater, Fla.-based healthcare company. His firm markets and distributes its own manufactured medical devices as well as products, supplies, and services of other companies. Tangalakis established Mercury Medical in 1980, following two years as president of Pharmacare Inc., and 23 years with Parke-Davis & Co. Pharmacare manufactured generic liquid dose pharmaceuticals and was a contract manufacturer for leading U.S. pharmaceutical firms.

At Parke-Davis, Tangalakis held various positions. His final post there was as product manager, responsible for generic and unit dose pharmaceuticals, and biological and parenteral products. During his 28-year tenure with Mercury Medical, he has served as an officer and board member on two national associations: Independent Medical Distributors and Independent Medical Cooperative.

As a Pharmacy student, Tangalakis lived the “missing-a-final-exam” nightmare. Thinking that the last exam of his senior year of Pharmacy school started at 1 p.m., he arrived to find an empty lecture hall. He then learned that the exam started at 8 a.m., and was long since over. Tangalakis ran to the office of course Professor Lee Worrell who was about to depart for Lansing. Tangalakis pled his case, asking for leniency. Seeing Tangalakis’ distress, Worrell agreed to let him take the timed exam under the watchful eyes of Pharmacy staff. Tangalakis passed, and was thus eligible to sit for his Pharmacy State Board exam. “I had nightmares over that situation for years,” he recalls.