Champions of Women and Children: Von Voigtlander, Woodson, Jones

Children’s and women’s health at Michigan has been galvanized by the generosity of several leading donors to the U-M Health System.

A $15 million gift from the Ted and Jane Von Voigtlander Foundation, the largest gift ever for women’s health at the U-M, supports the construction of the Health System’s new women’s hospital. It will be known as the University of Michigan Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital, in honor of the late Discount Tire Co. co-founder and his late wife, and is part of the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Women’s Hospital complex now under construction and scheduled to open in 2012.

The gift will allow the hospital’s women’s program to continue expanding its care in key areas, including fetal diagnosis and therapy, fetal surgery, and care of high-risk pregnancy, according to Timothy R.B. Johnson, M.D., who is the Bates Professor of the Diseases of Women and Children and chair of obstetrics and gynecology.

Gwen Haggerty, of Howell, Michigan, who serves as president of the foundation, says the gift to name the women’s hospital is a perfect way to honor the memory of her mother, Jane, and adoptive father, Ted, who helped raise her from the age of 7. Ted died in 1999. “It would mean a lot to my mom and it means a lot to me to be able to give this gift … to the University of Michigan to support women and their families,” Haggerty says.

Jane Von Voigtlander was a single mother working as a waitress at Weber’s restaurant in Ann Arbor when she met Ted, who was then in the early days of building the chain of retail stores, Discount Tire Co., now one of the largest independent tire dealerships in the country.

Jane, who passed away in 2007 of pancreatic cancer, formed the private family foundation in 2006 and focused its giving on children, health, medical research, the environment and the arts. She and Haggerty have made previous gifts to the U-M to support pulmonary medicine and the children’s hospital and women’s hospital project.

Former U-M football standout and 1997 Heisman trophy winner — and current Green Bay Packer cornerback — Charles Woodson has made a $2 million gift to the U-M C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital to establish the Charles Woodson Clinical Research Fund and to support construction of the new facility. The research fund will advance early-stage work to help children with life-threatening illnesses that include cancer, heart disease, kidney disorders and autism. The lobby of the new Mott Children’s Hospital will be named in his honor.

“When you visit a sick child, it puts everything into perspective,” Woodson says. “Now that I have the ability to make this gift, I feel as though I’m fulfilling my role in life in a new way. My gift to Mott is so that I can be part of the great things that are happening there, and so that I can help aspiring young doctors do their own outstanding work to help children.”

Patricia Warner, chief administrative officer of Mott, says of Woodon, “When he visits our patients — interacts with our families — he lifts up their spirits. Charles is a very special friend of our children’s hospital.”

Two gifts totaling $1 million have come to the Health System from Wayne and Shelly Jones and the Jones Family Foundation, of Belleville, Michigan, in support of the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and Von Voigtlander Women’s Hospital. In recognition, the family center in the children’s hospital, located on the main floor and dedicated to the support of patients’ families, will be named the Wayne and Shelly Jones Family Center.

The Joneses have been generous supporters of pediatric research at Mott since 2003, citing gratitude for their three healthy children as the motivation for their giving.
—COMPILED BY RICK KRUPINSKI

Young Alumni: Never Too Soon to Give

For many people, a philanthropic mindset develops over time. Careers flourish, estates are planned, and thoughts turn to giving back. But for Alexander and Kimberly (Yee) Lin — who earned their U-M medical degrees in 2002 and completed their residencies here in 2006 — philanthropy is just a part of life, and it’s never too soon to start.

Alex Lin, now an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the University of Pennsylvania, and his wife, Kim, a fellow in pediatric cardiology at Penn, met during medical school, married during their second year of residency, and have two daughters.

The Lins say they are proud of the education they received at the U-M, and grateful for the scholarships they received. “We were impressed by the generosity and school loyalty of the alums who gave money in order to help students like us,” says Kim Lin. “The scholarships allowed us to pursue our respective career paths without having to worry about large amounts of debt. Perhaps this planted the seed in our minds.”

“Our Christian faith encourages us to remember,” says Alex Lin, “that the medical skills we use, any research discoveries we make, and the money we earn as physicians are not ours to keep; they are gifts to share with others.”

Of course, they add, for young physicians just starting out, it can be tough to put the desire to give to others into practice. But, with the help of last year’s President’s Challenge — a U-M initiative that provided matching funds for scholarship gifts — and some careful budgeting, the Lins decided to go for it. By 2014, the Drs. Kimberly Yee Lin and Alexander Lin Endowed Scholarship will be fully funded and ready to help a medical student.

Alex Lin says, “It may sound corny, but it is a joy to write this check each year. Our hope is that others may be inspired to do the same.” —WH

Gratitude for a Longer Life

S. Chand Marwaha expected to die. After three months with a ventricular assist device implanted in his chest to help his weakened heart, his desperate hope for a heart transplant began to falter. At 11:30 one night in 2005, at age 62, Marwaha, of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, phoned his father in Delhi, India. “I was crying,” Marwaha says. “I told him that I’d taken care of him in my will, and I said my good-bye.”

Two hours later came the call he’d lost hope for: a heart was ready. Four hours after that, Marwaha was in surgery. Today, he is an active, successful, self-described humble man who is quick to say that the U-M physicians who saved his life — cardiologist Keith Aaronson, M.D. (Residency 1987), and cardiac surgeon Frank Pagani, M.D. (Residency 1996) — are “living gods on Earth.” Marwaha also has high regard for his personal physician, Vijay Khanna, M.D., who referred him to the U-M. “I’m very grateful to the doctors who took care of me. Dr. Pagani and Dr. Aaronson are the best in the world, and Dr. Khanna made house calls and was at my side in the ICU.” Marwaha is expressing his gratitude to the Health System through a bequest of $4 million that will establish research funds in cardiac surgery and cardiovascular medicine, and a professorship in each area.

Marwaha came to the U.S. in 1971 “with an education and a will to succeed” — and $5 in his pocket. Building upon degrees in business and law he earned in his native India, he received his master’s in business administration from the University of Detroit in 1972. A career that led to top management positions at Michigan Bell and First Independence Bank, Detroit, kept him in Michigan. His success in real estate management and development turned his attention full-time to those efforts; he now owns and develops residential and commercial properties throughout southeast Michigan and in Florida.

“I have a good life,” Marwaha says, “and a longer life to live now.” He believes that hard work makes a person stronger and better, and appreciates not only the care he’s received, but also how he’s always felt part of the Michigan family. He gives to Michigan because he knows the support will be well-spent and will translate for others into the hope to live that was restored to him by his Michigan physicians. “I’m here because of them.” —RK

Professorships Recently Inaugurated

The late Horace W. Davenport, Ph.D., D.Sc., a preeminent gastric physiologist, was honored February 1 with the inauguration of the Horace W. Davenport Collegiate Professorship in Physiology. Davenport, who was a professor and chair of physiology at the U-M, revolutionized the world of gastroenterology when his findings led to a greater understanding of the gastric mucosal barrier, which prevents the stomach from injuring or digesting itself. He also was a Rhodes Scholar and former president of the American Physiological Society. John A. Williams, M.D., Ph.D., professor of molecular and integrative physiology and of internal medicine, is the first Davenport Professor.

Two colleagues in the Department of Radiology were honored February 18 when the David E. Kuhl Collegiate Professorship in Radiology was inaugurated. The professorship, created from donor gifts as well as departmental resources, is named for Kuhl, internationally recognized for the introduction, development and clinical application of two diagnostic imaging technologies — single photon emission computed tomography and positron emission tomography. Kirk A. Frey (M.D. and Ph.D. 1984), professor of radiology and of neurology and research professor in the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, was installed as the first holder of the Kuhl Professorship.

The experience of caring for her ill parents — including her mother, who suffered from dementia — as well as the promise of finding a cure for the disease, prompted Elinor Levine to leave a substantial portion of her estate to the U-M to support research in this area. The Elinor Levine Professorship in Dementia Research, established after Levine’s death in December 2004, made it possible to bring to Michigan one of the world’s top dementia researchers. Associate Professor of Neurology and of Cell and Developmental Biology William T. Dauer, M.D., who came to the U-M from Columbia University in New York, was installed as the first Levine Professor on March 3. —KB