Lives Lived

Ed Meader, Longtime U-M Supporter, dies at 97
The generous philanthropy of Edwin “Ed” and Mary Meader has benefited the University of Michigan in many important ways and many areas across the University. Ed Meader’s death on February 1 at his home in Kalamazoo was a great loss to Michigan and a variety of other worthy causes he and his wife supported over the years, particularly in the Kalamazoo area.

Meader earned a bachelor’s degree at the U-M in 1933, and later a master’s in geography from Wayne State University where he then taught the geography of northern Africa and the Middle East as a part-time avocation. Meader’s Army service in World War II for the Office of Strategic Services included a long assignment in Ghana and north Africa. He married Mary Upjohn in 1965 after the death of his first wife, and they enjoyed 42 years of marriage until the time of his death.

Meader served as a member and sometimes president of the Harold and Grace Upjohn Foundation for more than 30 years. In recent years, Ed and Mary Meader have devoted themselves to philanthropy, most of which has been done very quietly. At Michigan, the Rachel Upjohn Depression Center, the Kellogg Eye Center and the Kelsey Archaeological Museum are among the causes the Meaders supported. The Meaders’ generosity continues a family tradition of philanthropy started by Mary Meader’s grandfather, William E. Upjohn, who earned his medical degree from Michigan and went on to found the Upjohn Company, a major pharmaceutical firm.

Ophthalmology Pioneer and Scholarship Benefactor William Myers Dies at 65
William D. Myers (M.D. 1966), a founder and director of the Michigan Eyecare Institute of Southfield, Dearborn and Livonia, and a strong supporter of Medical School scholarships, died on January 15 at age 65.

A pioneer in ophthalmology, in the 1970s Myers was one of the first in the U.S. to use surgical techniques for vision correction, and in the late ’80s, before LASIK was approved by the FDA, he performed the surgery in Windsor, Canada. He developed the Nova Curve Lens for use in cataract surgery and co-invented, with his brother, Terry Myers, D.D.S., the first workable dental laser.

Myers’ wife, Irene, an alumna of the U-M School of Art & Design, which the couple also generously supports, describes her husband’s philanthropic concept as “personal.”

“If a snapping turtle was attempting to cross the road and would surely be crushed by an oncoming car, Bill would carefully pick it up and carry it across the road to safety,” Irene Myers recalls. “When he admired a particular art student’s work, he commissioned a work from the student for his office. His support of scholarships was in the same vein — simply to assist someone along the way.”

Jane Von Voigtlander Supported Children’s and Women’s Hospital
Jane E. Von Voigtlander of Ann Arbor, a generous supporter of the new U-M C.S. Mott Children’s and Women’s Hospital in the U-M Health System, died January 19. She was 62.

With her daughter, Gwen, Von Voigtlander made a $2 million gift supporting construction of the new hospital in honor of Ted Von Voigtlander, a co-founder of Discount Tire and Jane’s husband for nearly 25 years until his death in 1999. Their life and the gift were profiled in the spring 2006 issue of Medicine at Michigan. Survived by her daughter and three grandchildren, Jane said of her generosity, “When you have grandchildren, you want to know that great research is being done to help all children,” and that she and Gwen, as well as Ted’s son, were happy about “this gift and what it will mean for Ted’s memory and for the future of children’s medicine at Michigan.”

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