A familiar phrase may best describe a recent $1.3 million gift by the late Mary and Roy Pearson of Holdrege, Neb. — the gift that keeps on giving.
Made from their estate, the Pearsons’ gift helps fund research at UNMC in macular degeneration and regenerative medicine and supports two existing endowed funds established at the University of Nebraska Foundation by the Pearsons during their lifetimes.
This gift brings the Pearsons’ total giving to the foundation in support of the University of Nebraska to nearly $2.7 million.
The most recent contribution furthers the Pearsons’ commitment to helping UNMC scientists develop treatments for diseases that drastically impact people’s lives. (Roy, himself, suffered from macular degeneration.) It also provides support to the university’s current fundraising initiative, Campaign for Nebraska, which concludes Dec. 31.
Their philanthropic support of UNMC’s department of ophthalmology and visual sciences began in 2007 when they made an initial gift to support research in macular degeneration by Iqbal Ahmad, Ph.D.
“Mary and Roy came into our lives as philanthropists and science benefactors but became our inspiration and guiding elders,” said Dr. Ahmad, a professor in the UNMC department of ophthalmology and visual sciences and the Truhlsen Eye Institute (TEI). “Their initial gift provided critical seed money and made possible some of our most important findings regarding regenerative medicine for retinal degeneration.”
The Pearsons often visited Ahmad’s lab when traveling to Omaha. A great friendship developed.
“I learned about life from these two wonderful people of the greatest generation,” he said. “The foundation of American uniqueness was not laid in big cities but in towns like Holdrege and by people like the Pearsons. Early on, they could see through the debates that stem cell research was important and might one day lead to the treatment of blindness. They rallied for it with their resources, time and passion.”
Roy died in 2010 and Mary in 2013.
The Pearsons’ gift also supports UNMC’s regenerative medicine program, which brings together scientists and physicians to develop innovative medical therapies that enable the body to repair, replace, restore and regenerate damaged or diseased tissues and organs.