Summer 2012 - Western University of Health Sciences

Pearson’s Pharmacy helps recent College
of Pharmacy graduate with life, school
and her future. By Jeff Malet, Writer/Photographer
Esmeralda Downs’ life changed 15 years ago when she answered
Bill and Ann Pearson’s ad for a pharmacy technician.
In addition to hiring her and paying her a good salary, the Pearsons
paid for her education at Western University of Health Sciences,
where she earned a PharmD degree from the College of Pharmacy in
2012. They also paid for some community college tuition, a class at
Cal State University, San Bernardino, her health insurance, and for a
gas card so she could commute to college.
“It’s very seldom you find people like this,” Esmeralda said. “I’ve
had a hard time with my life, and I could not have done it without
them. They just cuddled me, just held me, protected me and gave me
anything I needed.”
Esmeralda calls the Pearsons her guardian angels.
Bill and Ann Pearson met at the USC School of Pharmacy, and both
graduated in 1967. Bill went to work for Redlands Community
Hospital, and Ann worked at an independent pharmacy in San
Bernardino that they ended up buying and later selling.
In the late 1970s, the Pearsons took over another small pharmacy in
San Bernardino from Ann’s uncle. For more than 40 years, the
Pearsons have been helping pay for the education of their workers –
from a few courses for clerks and delivery driver clear up to the
WesternU degree for Esmeralda.
Bill said that his father’s story of being accepted into Stanford
University during the Depression — but his grandfather not paying
for him to go because he did not believe in education — motivates
him to help people get through college.
“If you have somebody who has the ability, you’ve got to help them
get there,” Bill said.
Before becoming a pharmacy technician, Esmeralda had been a
forklift driver and a bus driver.
She needed to change careers after the Foothill Transit bus she was
driving in downtown Los Angeles was hit by a big rig and driven into
an electrical pole. The company offered to pay for a career change
and she decided to earn a pharmacy technician certificate because she
was unable to continue working as a bus driver.
Esmeralda, 43, of Yucaipa, is one of 20 brothers and sisters born in
Zacatecas, Mexico. Of those 20 siblings, 13 have survived.
Her parents worked in the U.S. in the 1950s to help support their
large family. Her father worked as an agricultural laborer and her
mother was a seamstress.
12 | RxBound WesternU, College of Pharmacy