VCU news

By Anne Buckley

The Pauley Family Foundation has made a $5 million gift to the Pauley Heart Center at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center that will be matched by the VCU Glasgow Endowment, creating a $10 million total gift to expand and enhance recruitment and research at the world-class cardiology program.

In addition to the Pauley gift announced at a reception on Tuesday, VCU launched a fundraising campaign to raise $5 million for the Pauley Heart Center that also will be matched by an additional $5 million from the Glasgow trusts.

“VCU’s progress as one of the nation’s Top 50 public research universities has been accelerated by a series of game-changers, and the Pauley Family Foundation’s latest generous gift is another example,” said Michael Rao, Ph.D., president of VCU and the VCU Health System. “Their continued support empowers my colleagues at Pauley Heart Center to save lives and improve the human experience throughout Virginia and beyond.

“I am so proud of my colleagues’ clinical and research breakthroughs and grateful for the Pauley and Glasgow families’ progressive investment in one of America’s top research universities,” Rao said. “Their latest gift reinforces our deep commitment to human health and to winning the war against heart disease.”

The Glasgow trusts were established in the 1950s, shortly before the deaths of Arthur and Margaret Glasgow. Sixty years later, the couple’s trusts totaled $125 million. Upon distribution of the estate, the Glasgow bequest to VCU was nearly $45 million for research into cancer and other degenerative diseases and became the VCU Glasgow Endowment.

“This is a project that is near and dear to my heart,” said Stanley Pauley, whose Pauley Family Foundation is a longtime supporter of VCU. Pauley, a former heart center patient, was so impressed with the staff that in 2006 his foundation gave a $5 million gift to VCU for its heart center, which was later renamed Pauley Heart Center. “The care these health care professionals provide is so genuine and moving that it is an honor to contribute to research that will enable them to learn even more about heart disease.”

The VCU Pauley Heart Center was among the first in the United States to implant the Total Artificial Heart and is known for many of its heart programs, including pioneering work in ventricular assist devices, electrophysiology, emergency cardiac care, atrial fibrillation treatment, cardiothoracic surgery and heart transplantation.

"The Pauleys’ generosity through the years will have a lasting impact on the region and nation for the remarkable breakthroughs made possible by their support,” said Sheldon M. Retchin, M.D., senior vice president for VCU Health Sciences and CEO of the VCU Health System. “The Pauley family contributions will be felt for generations to come. Thanks to their marvelous gift we will be able to recruit even more talented faculty to the Pauley Heart Center.”  

Jerome F. Strauss, III, M.D., Ph.D. dean of the VCU School of Medicine, said, the basic and clinical research carried out by physicians and scientists affiliated with the Pauley Heart Center “has had a profound impact on the survival of patients suffering a cardiac arrest and from heart failure.”

“We are very fortunate to have philanthropists in our community like Stanley and Dorothy Pauley, who are instrumental in helping us bring innovation and excellence to the care of patients with cardiovascular disease,” Strauss said.