MU grad donates to School of Medicine

A former cardiologist who graduated from MU in the 1950s is giving back to the School of Medicine.

It was announced Wednesday that Gerald Lee and his wife, Marilyn, are donating $1.1 million to the cardiology division in the department of internal medicine. The money will be used to fund research related to Sudden Cardiac Death, or SCD, as well as clinical cardiology.

The Lees said they hope their gift will help find a cure for SCD, which the American Heart Association describes as a sudden, abrupt loss of heart function that can occur in someone who may or may not be diagnosed with heart disease. According to the association, an estimated 335,000 Americans die each year of coronary heart disease without ever making it to the hospital, most from SCD.

At a ceremony in the Reynolds Alumni Center, Gerald Lee reminisced about past characters and influences in his life and medical career. Among them was Selman Waksman, the 1952 Nobel Prize winner who conducted some of his research on streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis, in Boone County using dirt from Sanborn Field.

Kevin Dellsperger, chairman of MU’s department of internal medicine, called the Lees’ gift an “incredible and important investment ... in their support for MU.”

Dellsperger said that because the money will provide for additional cardiovascular investigators, there will be new opportunities for cardiovascular research, which he described as one of MU’s “most important lifesaving programs.”

“We are now poised to enter a new era of cardiovascular research at MU,” he said. “With such support as the Lees’ gift, we can further advance and support an already powerful and far-reaching cardiovascular research program.”

Dellsperger said another potential area of use for the Lees’ funds and other sources is electro-physiology, a sub-specialty of cardiology that focuses on heart rhythm disorder.

“Additional faculty expertise in this field would be especially important in preventing and understanding causes of Sudden Cardiac Death,” he said.

Lee — who, with his wife, founded the nonprofit Bridge Builders Senior Services in Independence — said that if breakthroughs occur in cardiovascular research, he hopes the money will then be used for funding research on stroke and Alzheimer’s Disease.

“We don’t want to tie the hands of the university,” he said.