Dr. Lawrence Rosen and Ms. Goldyne Savad

Goldyne Savad’s curiosity about the world around her fed her passion for learning. Keenly interested in the stock market, she parlayed her secretarial salary into a substantial fortune. By the time she passed away in 2008 at the age of 100 years and 7 months, she had amassed a multimillion dollar estate. “My aunt was a remarkable woman,” says alumnus Lawrence Rosen, MD ’54, GME ’55, of Santa Monica, California. Weekly family dinners with his mother’s sister had long fostered a close relationship between Dr. Rosen and his aunt. At her request, he became the trustee of her estate in her later years. “She had simple desires as stated in her will. In addition to gifts to family, she wanted to help find a cure for cancer.”

Forever grateful for his medical school education, this retired neuroradiologist saw an opportunity to fulfill his aunt’s wishes and give back to Northwestern at the same time. In 2010, Dr. Rosen honored his late aunt by creating the Goldyne Savad Scholarship to help lessen the financial burden facing many medical students after graduation. Additionally, Dr. Rosen designated funding to support the novel cancer research of Jonathan D. Licht, MD, chief and Johanna Dobe Professor of Hematology/Oncology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Licht’s laboratory focuses on identifying cell signaling pathways and the use of gene therapy for the development of new cancer treatments. Dr. Rosen took this two-pronged approach to giving to advance both the present and the future of cancer care—a cause that was important to his aunt. Although she was healthy most of her life, Ms. Savad had lost too many family and friends to cancer.

“By supporting ongoing research, hopefully my aunt’s estate can further develop genetic therapies that will help today’s cancer patients,” explains Dr. Rosen. “And through scholarships, we can make possible the medical education of future physicians who, perhaps, may someday help in the cure for cancer.”