Our patients deserve access to the most brilliant physicians and scientists in the world. Endowed chairs are a decisive resource in attracting and retaining talent. By allowing physicians and researchers to pursue academic priorities, the endowed funds enable brilliant minds to realize their full potential.
Leverage Your Gift | The Centennial Chair Challenge
To fuel our effort to draw elite medical talent, we designed the C3 | Centennial Chair Challenge to create a total of 100 endowed chairs for our 100-year anniversary in 2019. Rusty and Paula Walter have established a unique matching fund. For each commitment of $1 million or more to create a new endowed chair, this fund will provide a $500,000 match, leveraging your philanthropic dollars for an even greater impact. The C3 will establish a group of chairs—the "Centennial Chairs"—and can be named for the donor or in honor of someone chosen by the contributor.
For more information, please email donor@houstonmethodist.org or call 832.667.5816.
Thanks to You
| $ | 349 | M |
| RAISED TO DATE | ||
| $ | 500 | M |
| CAMPAIGN GOAL | ||
|
77
ENDOWED CHAIRS
|
18
ENDOWED SCHOLARS
|
11216
DONORS
|
Stories
Read more about our friends and benefactors whose leadership and generosity have helped to build our legacy and take this next step forward.
Candy and Tom Knudson
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Candy and Tom Knudson
The pain in Michael Galbreth’s head on December 12, 2016, was nothing short of debilitating. The healthy 60-year old had never experienced a migraine and didn’t get headaches. This “headache” was so severe he couldn’t walk. When the pain returned tenfold a few days later, he barely made it to the emergency room.
An aneurysm caused by a structural deformation in a major vessel nearly killed him. “He was very lucky,” says Dr. Gavin Britz, director of the Houston Methodist Neurological Institute. “He had bled earlier and had a second hemorrhage. The second hemorrhage is normally fatal.”
Dr. Britz canceled a planned overseas trip, and he and his team were able to operate. Mike and his family believe his restored health goes beyond good luck. They call his life-saving surgery a miracle.
“Mike was home for Christmas dinner,” says his mother-in-law Candy Knudson. “It’s a Christmas we will never ever forget.”
Candy and Tom Knudson had spent years in and out of Houston Methodist Hospital, as visitors when their elderly parents and friends needed care, and as patients on occasion. Tom serves on the President’s Leadership Council and the Neurological Institute National Council, and the couple has supported the Neurological Institute for several years.
Now their son-in-law’s life was saved at Houston Methodist Hospital.
“We had been talking about a gift to Houston Methodist, and I knew from serving on the campaign steering committee how important it is to get to 100 endowed chairs for the hospital’s centennial in 2019,” says Tom. “It really all fit together just beautifully.”
The couple’s generous gift established the first Centennial Chair—this one in honor of Dr. Britz, who was appointed as the inaugural holder of the Candy and Tom Knudson Centennial Chair in Neurosurgery in honor of Gavin W. Britz, M.D.
“Houston Methodist has a pioneering spirit, an entrepreneurial spirit and a total can-do willingness to take great risks to do great things,” Tom says. “And you all have created a wonderful culture of service.”
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John S. Dunn Foundation
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John S. Dunn Foundation
The John S. Dunn Foundation has generously provided support for Houston Methodist’s excellence in medical education, patient care and transformational research for more than three decades, placing them among Houston Methodist’s most generous and long-standing philanthropic partners. In 2014, the Foundation again demonstrated its exceptional giving spirit through milestone investments in the fields of brain cancer research and reconstructive and plastic surgery research and education.
Brain Cancer Research
The Foundation made three new commitments toward brain tumor research: the Milby Dow Dunn Fund; the John S. “Steve” Dunn Jr. Chair; and the Dagmar Dunn Pickens Gipe Chair. These commitments will provide Peak Center Director Dr. David S. Baskin with the resources to support translational research and to attract world-class researchers to focus on glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive and deadly forms of malignant primary brain tumor. “The John S. Dunn Foundation is helping us take the Kenneth R. Peak Center for Brain and Pituitary Tumor Treatment and Research to the next level as one of the nation’s premier centers for brain tumor patients,” Dr. Baskin says. “We have the most advanced technology available, as well as a multidisciplinary and collaborative environment that gives our patients the very best 24/7 care. The Dunn Foundation’s generosity will continue to enhance our patients’ access to the latest brain cancer treatment and research protocols.”
Also last year, the Dunn Foundation established an endowed fund to create the John S. Dunn Jr. Center for Research and Education in Reconstructive and Plastic Surgery. The gift supports a three-year reconstructive surgery residency program, providing post-graduate physicians with unparalleled education and training. In addition, the Dunn Center provides residents experience in innovative surgical techniques and dramatic new treatment options for patients when trauma, disease or a congenital difference makes reconstructive surgery necessary. Dr. Jeffrey Friedman, Chairman of Houston Methodist’s Division of Plastic Surgery, says the new Dunn Center will be a vital part of enhancing research and education in six focus areas: reconstructive micro-surgery; facial paralysis and functional restoration; breast restoration; lower extremity restoration; genito-urinary and pelvic reconstruction; and body contour restoration.
6 endowed chairs
The John S. “Steve” Dunn Jr. Chair and the Dagmar Dunn Pickens Gipe Chair bring the number of endowed chairs at Houston Methodist to six, more than any other Houston Methodist benefactor. The four previously existing chairs include: John S. Dunn Sr. Chair in General Internal Medicine held by Dr. Susan Miller; John S. Dunn Sr. Chair in Clinical Cardiovascular Research and Education held by Dr. William Winters; John S. Dunn Sr. Chair in Orthopedic Surgery; and John S. Dunn Sr. Distinguished Endowed Chair in Biomedical Engineering held by Dr. Stephen Wong.
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The Arnold Family
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The Arnold Family
For nearly four decades, Dan Arnold and Dr. Bill Winters have shared a keen devotion to the Houston community and to quality health care for its residents. The intersection of their lives and interests came full circle in 2016 with a most extraordinary commitment to establish The Beverly B. and Daniel C. Arnold Presidential Distinguished Chair in Cardiology in honor of William L. Winters Jr., MD. This endowed chair celebrates the enduring impact Dan and his wife Beverly continue to have on Houston and honors the renowned career of Dr. Winters and his contributions to cardiology. It also commemorates the legacy and friendship of two dynamic and generous Houston families.
When Dan Arnold was asked to impart his best life lesson as part of the Houston Oral History Project in 2010, he defined his philosophy in two short sentences: "You've got to put more back into your community than you take from it. You can't be a taker, you've got to be a giver.”
The native Houstonian has been giving back to his community for more than six decades. A lawyer and banker by trade, he has volunteered much of his time to leadership roles that included the creation of the Harris County Hospital District and the Houston Area Urban League, chairmanship of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, the local Red Cross, the Baylor College of Medicine board and a host of other civic causes. Even in his 30s, Dan Arnold was able to get things done with consensus and a spark of humor - he believed in a collaborative approach and solving Houston's problems became his forte.
Along the way, he met an up-and-coming young cardiologist. He and Dr. Bill Winters knew many of the same movers and shakers and shared a common bond – they liked to work behind the scenes and avoid the limelight. Over the years, their children played sports together and the families became friends.
The Arnold's three adult children Alice, Susan and Steven - had long wanted to find a health care cause that would help patients and also honor their parents, but Beverly and Dan Arnold preferred to do things quietly and didn't want their names on anything. However, when their children suggested honoring Dr. Winters - whom they call "Grand Doc" - the Arnolds were on board. They let their friends know about the endowed chair, and their initial generous contribution - complemented with gifts from the Arnold and Winters children, along with 61 friends and community leaders - grew to Houston Methodist's largest endowed chair supported solely through philanthropic funds within just a few weeks.
"To have the Arnold family name on this chair is really very special,” Dr. Winters says.
"I don't know of anybody who's done more for this community than Dan Arnold. I hope the holders of this chair will perpetuate the service, integrity, honesty and sense of excellence that Dan and Beverly have portrayed through the years.”
The presidential distinguished chair provides for the recruitment and retention of cardiology's most gifted physician-scientists and will help sustain and advance Houston Methodist's role as a leader in heart care around the world. As friends and colleagues of Dr. Michael E. DeBakey (1908 – 2008), Dan Arnold and Dr. Winters hope the chair will help preserve Dr. DeBakey's spirit of innovation and pioneering heart research for many more decades.
Dan Arnold and Dr. Winters are men of the same generation, born in 1930 and 1926, respectively. They worked their way to the top of their professions, earning universal respect and long lists of achievements and accolades along the way. They are published authors, mentors and volunteers.
But what remains most important to both is family. They've been married to their wives - Beverly Arnold and Barbara Winters- for more than 60 years and credit them with raising their children to be good, hard-working people. Now, through the Beverly B. and Daniel Arnold Presidential Distinguished Chair in Cardiology in honor of William L. Winters Jr., MD, their families and their friendship are cemented forever in yet another effort to make the world a better place.
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