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Giving in Action: Honoring their son’s legacy
Sep. 13, 2018—Two new scholarships at Vanderbilt University — one at Vanderbilt Law School, the other at the School of Medicine — have been named in honor of alumnus Rick Ferrini, JD’11. Divya and Vino Ferrini of Dallas have pledged $1 million to establish both the Rick V. N. Ferrini Law Scholarship and Rick V. N. Ferrini...
Giving in Action: Paying it forward
Sep. 13, 2018—You could say Tom Brown’s future was set at an early age. His English teacher took one look at his handwriting and told him, “You better be a doctor.” While more drove him to medicine than his hard-to-decipher handwriting, Brown, MD’69, BA’65, has worked as a cardiologist for Iowa Heart Center for more than 40...
Giving in Action: Tragedy begets generosity
Feb. 28, 2018—Keith Nolop, MD’79, was a brilliant physician and researcher whose life was cut short in 2016 due to trauma from a bicycle accident. To create something positive out of this tragedy and to commemorate his life as a physician-researcher, his brothers, Neil and Bruce, endowed the Keith Nolop, M.D. Scholarship at the School of Medicine...
Giving in Action: Finding heart in a lung transplant
Feb. 28, 2018—Barbara Rosser Merz and Glenn Merz both lost spouses to a rare lung disease, but found each other and a renewed sense of gratitude. When her husband, Vernon, received his lung transplant at Vanderbilt in 1997, Barbara Rosser started a support group for lung transplant families. The group met frequently, helped one another during difficult...
Giving in Action: Family First for Distinguished Alum
Sep. 22, 2017—Although Richard B. Johnston Jr., M.D., ‘61, BA’57, is a renowned immunologist and pediatrician, it’s his family that makes him most grateful and proud. Johnston — who has dedicated his life’s work to improving the health of children — received the Vanderbilt University Alumni Association Distinguished Alumni Award this spring. The honor is the highest...
Giving in Action: A Vision for Change
Sep. 22, 2017—Steve Kutner, M.D.,’65, restored sight to thousands of refugees during his life, while also helping patients in his Georgia Eye Clinic to preserve their sight. Kutner died in 2016, but his spirit of giving continues. Although Kutner founded an international nonprofit, Project Vision, Jeanney Kutner says her late husband saw himself as a humanitarian, not...
Giving in Action: Welborn’s Healing Scholarship
Mar. 6, 2017—Although grief robbed Bill Welborn, M.D. ‘67, BA ‘64, of the ability to express his feelings after the death of longtime friend, Bill Johnston, M.D. ‘67, BA ‘64, the scholarship Welborn created in memory of Johnston helped him make peace with the loss. “Seeing Bill face Alzheimer’s created overwhelming feelings of frustration and sadness. Anyone...
Giving in Action: School of Medicine’s New Giving Societies
Mar. 6, 2017—Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (VUSM) has launched two new donor societies, the John E. Chapman, M.D. Society, recognizing donors who support clinical degree programs and endowed faculty chairs, and the Discovery Circle which recognizes donors to Basic Sciences. Chapman led the school from 1975-2001—the longest tenure of any dean. During that time, he conferred...
Giving in Action: Doing well by doing good
Aug. 17, 2016—Jonathan Partain, M.D.’60, BA ‘57, wanted to use his medical degree to do something good for people when he moved to Orlando, Florida, in 1968 to start his own practice that would become the Orlando Heart Center. That was the same year that Walt Disney had been secretly buying swamp land in Orlando area in...
Giving in Action: A debt of gratitude
Aug. 17, 2016—Like many physician-scientists who serve in university-based teaching hospitals, W. Bedford Waters, M.D., ‘74, BA ‘70, has investigated medical mysteries in his career. But one question remains after many years—the identity of the donor who supported his education. “John Chapman, who was dean of the School of Medicine, knew me from my work as an...