Recent Gifts to the U-M Health System

Peter and Virginia Corriveau Photo: Anne Cooper

Gratitude Takes the Form of Physician Support
Peter Corriveau, founder of Corriveau Steel, and his wife, Virginia, of Farmington, Michigan, recently made gifts totaling $200,000 in gratitude for care received from U-M physicians. Support went to Kim Eagle, M.D., the Albion Walter Hewlett Professor of Internal Medicine, to fund clinical education; Timothy M. Johnson, M.D., the Lewis and Lillian Becker Professor of Dermatology, for his work with melanoma; and an expendable gift to the Division of Nephrology. Corriveau is a graduate of the University of Detroit.

Mardigian Foundation Funds Aortic Research
Continued support from the Edward and Helen Mardigian Foundation to the Cardiovascular Center is funding research in new techniques in catheterizations/interventional cardiology and echocardiography/ heart imaging. The foundation’s gifts to aortic research at the Cardiovascular Center total nearly $1 million, and its generosity also has benefited the Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Geriatrics Center, as well as a library and Armenian studies at Michigan’s Dearborn campus. An industrialist and philanthropist, Edward Mardigian Sr., who died in 1993, funded museums and the restoration of historic Armenian churches and monasteries worldwide. His widow, Helen, serves as president of the foundation, and his son, Edward Jr., serves as vice president and treasurer. According to Edward Jr., his father believed the U.S. was good to him and he wanted to give back. “He always felt that whatever you gave would come back tenfold.”

Mulkey Professorship Pays Tribute to Michigan Training
Dorothy M. Mulkey, M.D. (Residency 1972), of Flushing, Michigan, has established a bequest which will create the Dorothy M. Mulkey, M.D., Endowed Professorship in Rheumatology, as well as the Dorothy M. Mulkey, M.D., Endowed Research Fund in Rheumatology. Mulkey, who was among the first women to complete a residency in rheumatology at Michigan, was a protégé of Giles Bole (M.D. 1953, Residency 1956), then chief of the Department of Rheumatology and later dean of the Medical School. After a career as assistant dean at the Michigan State University medical school and nearly 30 years in private practice, Mulkey decided to leave the bulk of her estate to Michigan where she trained.

Edward Ravitz

Ravitz Foundation Spurs Translational Cancer Research
A $1 million gift from the Ravitz Foundation, a Southfield, Michigan-based philanthropic organization with interests in health care and cancer research, has created the Ravitz Foundation Phase I Translational Research Unit in the Comprehensive Cancer Center. Phase I research involves clinical trials which translate basic laboratory research into experimental therapies; such translational research is the first step in the process of testing a new therapy on actual patients. Burt Shifman, a director of the foundation, refers to the gift as “the fuel to do the research that needs to be done.” Edward Ravitz, a native of Kalamazoo, was a builder and real estate developer who, at the time of his death in 1999, had helped build more than 15,000 single-family and apartment homes in Michigan and another 12,000 in other states.

Towsley Foundation Supports New Eye Imaging Center
The Harry A. and Margaret D. Towsley Foundation has awarded $1.5 million to the U-M Kellogg Eye Center to help fund a state-of-the art eye imaging center, to be named for the Towsleys. The new center will capture images of the eye to be used in gathering information about eye disease. The Midland, Michigan-based foundation’s generosity has benefited many areas of the University and its Health System. Harry Towsley (M.D. 1931, Residency 1934), a member of the Medical School faculty for 37 years, and his wife, Margaret Dow Towsley, were both major benefactors to the U-M, and the foundation has continued that tradition of generosity to Michigan over the years.

John Vincent and Burton Vincent Jr. Photo: Martin Vloet

Vincent Professorship Advances Diabetes, Metabolism Research
A gift from the Molly Vincent Foundation has established the Marilyn H. Vincent Professorship in Diabetes Research, honoring the family of Marilyn H. (Molly) and Burton J. Vincent and helping advance leading-edge diabetes and metabolism research at Michigan. Molly Vincent had type 2 diabetes mellitus, and one of her sons, Burton Jr., is afflicted with type 1. Both illnesses significantly affected the Vincent family and led to Molly’s wish that her estate contribute to future advances in diabetes research. Burton Jr. and his brother, John, are carrying out their mother’s wishes by creating the Vincent Professorship. Molly Vincent was an Ann Arbor native, and Burton Sr. was a visionary businessman who received his business degree from the U-M in 1948.

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