The foundation will give $7.5 million for start-up costs and a $7.5 million dollar-for-dollar endowment challenge grant to each of the medical school's two partners - the University of Tulsa and the University of Oklahoma-Tulsa.

This gift is not only the largest in the history of the foundation but also equal to about half of the total donations in the foundation's history, said Trustee R.H. Harbaugh.

Mary K. and John T. Oxley, who established the foundation in 1985, were Tulsans "through and through" and would be "very proud today to hear of this new commitment," Harbaugh said. "We look forward to working with you to make Tulsa a more healthy, happy and productive community."

TU President Steadman Upham, OU President David Boren and OU-Tulsa President Gerard Clancy presented Harbaugh and Oxley Foundation Program Officer Konnie Boulter with white lab coats as symbolic gifts to mark the commitment.

The announcement at the Wayman Tisdale Specialty Health Clinic attracted a large crowd of local leaders, including Mayor Dewey Bartlett, Tulsa Metro Chamber President Mike Neal, state Rep. Jabar Shumate, regents and trustees from OU and TU, and several Tulsa physicians.

Boren said the gift marks a "transformational moment" for the area.

The new school will train primary-care physicians to treat underserved areas, especially poor parts of Tulsa.

Forty percent of the city's population live in an area with only 4 percent of the city's physicians, and north Tulsans on average have a life expectancy seven years shorter than their south Tulsa neighbors, Boren said.

"We really felt a moral imperative ... to do something about it, and that's what we celebrate today because we're going to create a future far different from our present course," he said.

For decades, OU has been graduating physicians at its Tulsa school. The students spent their first two years of medical school studying pure science at Oklahoma City's OU Health Sciences Center and the second two years in clinical instructions in Tulsa.

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Oxley Foundation makes $30 million commitment to Tulsa medical school