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U.VA. RECEIVES $3.5 MILLION FOR CANCER RESEARCH, EDUCATION

The University of Virginia Medical School Foundation has received a $3.5 million bequest for cancer research and education from Mrs. Florence Farrow of New York City. This is the largest campaign gift from an individual earmarked for medical research at U.Va., and the Health Sciences Library's largest gift for its collections endowment.

Mrs. Farrow's gift comes at a particularly auspicious time, said Dr. Robert M. Carey, dean of the School of Medicine. The funds established through her generosity will accelerate our bold agenda for cancer research. Already, our Cancer Center is working to consolidate strengths, attract new resources, and catalyze new and existing research aimed at ways to treat, prevent, and even cure cancer.

Mrs. Farrow, the widow of U.Va. alumnus Joseph Helms Farrow (Art & Sciences '26, Medicine '30), left $688,000 to complete the Joseph Helms Farrow Professorship in Surgical Oncology, which she established in 1988. An additional $250,000 of her gift will establish a fund in the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library for the purchase of books, journals and other materials in cancer-related fields. The remainder, in excess of $2.5 million, will be used to create a cancer research fund for fellowships to support talented cancer researchers.

The University of Virginia's Cancer Center was recently ranked 19th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. U.Va.'s strong cancer research programs contributed to the ranking, explained Michael Weber, director of U.Va.'s Cancer Center.

U.Va. scientists are aggressively pursuing a number of leading-edge initiatives in cancer research, Weber said. We have an extremely strong core of researchers working in prostate cancer. Another team has made great strides toward developing a vaccine against melanoma. And we are developing promising new technologies for detecting and treating breast cancer. I believe that the U.Va. Cancer Center can play a major role in cancer research and in translating knowledge into new treatments, diagnostics and preventives that will improve the lives of people in Virginia and throughout the nation. Generous gifts such as the one made by Mrs. Farrow are a pivotal in accelerating the rate of our research.

With this gift, the Farrows have left a legacy in knowledge, explained Linda Watson, director of the Claude Moore Health Sciences Library. Students, researchers and health professionals all depend on the library's resources to do their work, and this gift will contribute significantly to our collection.

Florence Farrow had previously made generous gifts to U.Va. including a collection of her husband's historical medical texts to the library. She had served as an honorary trustee of the U.Va. Medical School Foundation. Dr. Farrow, a native of Roanoke, Virginia, was an oncologist and chief of breast services at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for more than 35 years. He also presided over the New York Cancer Center until his death in 1977. Mrs. Farrow died in February 1999 at the age of 93. This gift is the culmination of a long-standing relationship between the Farrows and Mr. William Booth, formerly executive director of the Medical School Foundation.

August 3, 2000