UT Southwestern gets more millions from Harold and Annette Simmons

by PegNews wire

Dallas' "legendary philanthropists" pony up another $50 mil to flesh out the Innovations in Medicine campaign.

UT Southwestern

Harold and Annette Simmons (center): philanthropists extraordinaire. The other guys (including William Solomon, Tom Leppert, Dr. Kern Wildenthal and Paul M. Bass, Jr.) are just there to bask in their glory.

To hear University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center president Dr. Kern Wildenthal tell it, without the contributions of local philanthropists Harold and Annette Simmons, the quality of care and research undertaken by his institution would be a paltry shade of what it currently is, and many of its notable achievements might not have borne the same spectacular fruit.

It's difficult to poo poo (to employ medical terminology) that sort of praise when you consider that the Simmonses have personally donated $125 million over the past five years to the Innovations in Medicine campaign, designed to enable UT Southwestern to attract top medical and scientific talent and fund research programs in the following fields: behavioral and degenerative neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's; cancer; heart disease and stroke; pediatric illnesses, birth defects and inherited disorders; and infectious diseases and immunology. Other priorities include basic molecular research, biostatistics and computational biology, medical imaging and biotechnology.

The capital campaign has proven so successful, thanks to generous contributions by the Simmonses (I just love saying/writing that!) and others, that the initial goal of $450 million was raised to $500 million; with the recent $50 million kick-in by the Simmonses (heh, heh) the tabulated total of contributions now stands at over $740 million.

Says campaign chairman William T. Solomon: "The unparalleled success of the campaign attests loudly and clearly to the credibility UT Southwestern has in our community. The ‘product’ sold itself, and the response of the people of Dallas and North Texas has been incomparable. The truly exceptional generosity of Harold and Annette Simmons is an extraordinary example of the role of private philanthropists in fulfilling the vision of the campaign and of UT Southwestern.”

It's no wonder the mayor shows up to honor these generous folks. To the Simmonses we say: Saaaalute!

posted by JM