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Volume 39, No. 12 |
University asks Regents to name College of Medicine for Carvers
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| The Roy J. and
Lucille A. Carver Biomedical Research Building will be a major medical
research facility on the UI campus, housing key components of the
college’s research activities, including investigators studying
genetics, neuroscience, and aging. The building, which will be a linear
extension of the Medical Education and Biomedical Research Facility,
is slated for completion in 2005. |
At a news conference on March 6, the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust of Muscatine announced a gift to the College of Medicine of $63 million. It is the largest gift ever given to the University.
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| Roy J. Carver |
That money will go to support facilities, programs, and endowments including: construction of the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver Biomedical Research Building; the Roy J. Carver Research Programs of Excellence, which will support pioneering research within the college; construction, renovation, and support of core research facilities; the Carver Medical Research Initiative Awards program to individual investigators pursuing highly innovative research; and faculty endowments associated with specific department or division headships and professorships within the college.
Roy and Lucille Carver made their first gift to The University of Iowa in 1969 to fund student scholarships. Since then, the Carver family and the Carver Trust, which began making grants in 1987, have given the University approximately $106 million for a broad array of purposes.
Muscatine businessman and philanthropist Roy J. Carver, who died in 1981, and his wife, Lucille A. Carver, were generous University of Iowa contributors during Roy Carver’s lifetime. Their first University gift was made in support of student aid in 1969; their gifts grew over the years to total nearly $9 million in support for University programs ranging from the Museum of Art, to athletics, to the College of Medicine and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, founded after Roy Carver’s death, has been providing crucial support to University of Iowa biomedical research initiatives for more than 15 years. The trust’s support is visible throughout Iowa’s medical campus—in the Carver Pavilion in UI Hospitals and Clinics, the Roy J. Carver Molecular Science Research Center (now under construction), the laboratories of several renowned UI scientists who make groundbreaking discoveries as Roy J. Carver Endowed Chairs in biomedical research, and within the halls of the Hardin Library for the Health Sciences. This gift also represents a continuation of the trust’s support
of the University as a whole. In recent years alone, major gifts
from the Carver Trust have supported University initiatives as varied
as Hancher Auditorium outreach in eastern Iowa; a “Reading
Recovery” program sponsored by the College of Education; the
Nonprofit Resource Center in the College of Law; digital technology
for the UI Libraries; the Mississippi River Research Station; and
the Center for Comparative Genomics in the Department of Biological
Sciences, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. With its current
commitment to the College of Medicine, the Carver Trust’s support
for The University of Iowa totals approximately $106 million. |
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“We are grateful that the Carver Trust has continued their legacy of deep and broad support to the University,” said UI President Mary Sue Coleman in remarks at the announcement of the gift. “Both the Carver family and the Carver Trust have been especially staunch supporters of the health sciences and health care at Iowa, bringing us today to their $63 million gift to the College of Medicine, the largest gift ever to the University. The size of this gift represents the deepest of commitments to The University of Iowa. It is a sign of continued, not culminating, support for the University.”
Troy K. Ross, executive administrator of the Carver Trust, said this most recent gift is very much in the tradition of philanthropy established by Roy J. Carver during his lifetime.
“The late Roy J. Carver was very committed to advancing knowledge of human disease through support for biomedical research, particularly at the University of Iowa College of Medicine,” Ross said. “This sizeable grant, awarded by the Carver Trust’s board of trustees, including Mr. Carver’s widow, Lucille, represents a long-term investment in the college that is intended to propel its research enterprise toward an unparalleled level of excellence.”
Robert P. Kelch, dean of the College of Medicine and vice president for statewide health services, said support from the Carver Trust will have significant long-term impact on the health of Iowans and of people everywhere.
“Over the years, the Carver Trust has played an important role in the college’s national and international reputation,” he said. “A gift of this magnitude will elevate Iowa into the highest tier of academic medical centers.”
The College of Medicine will be the second University of Iowa college to be named. In 1999, the College of Business Administration was renamed the Henry B. Tippie College of Business in recognition of the Tippie’s $30 million gift to the University. If the request is approved by the Board of Regents, State of Iowa, The University of Iowa will have the seventh named medical school in the country. In February, Northwestern University renamed its medical school the Feinberg School of Medicine.
Roy J. Carver, an engineer, entrepreneur, and industrialist, died in 1981. Lucille A. Carver and Roy J. Carver Jr. serve on the Board of Trustees of the Carver Trust, which was established to continue the family’s philanthropic work. It is Iowa’s largest private foundation.
In addition to gifts to the College of Medicine, the trust has supported University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics; the Colleges of Dentistry, Engineering, Education, Law, and Liberal Arts and Sciences; the UI Libraries; Hancher Auditorium; UI athletics; student aid; and other UI programs.
For more information about this gift, visit this web site: www.uihealthcare.com/news.
Article
by Steve Maravetz