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Med. School announces $6 million gift

The donation will fund at least 10 endowed chairs.

By Elliot Njus
March 20, 2008

A donation from the estate of Margaret Proctor Mulligan will fund at least 10 endowed professorships in the School of Medicine.

A donation from the estate of Margaret Proctor Mulligan will fund at least 10 endowed professorships in the School of Medicine.

A $6 million donation will create more endowed faculty positions than any donations in history, according to an MU news release.

The donation, from the estate of Margaret Proctor Mulligan, will fund at least 10 endowed professorships in the School of Medicine.

The donation will fund research into cardiovascular disease and breast cancer, which, according to the release, both personally affected Mulligan. She was a survivor of breast cancer, and her father died of a heart attack. Mulligan died in 2007 at the age of 97.

"Like millions of other people, Mrs. Mulligan was personally affected by breast cancer and cardiovascular disease," School of Medicine Dean William Crist said in the release. "She also believed strongly that these diseases could someday be cured or prevented through advancements in medical research."

Mulligan donated to MU several times since 1998, and the Ellis Fischel Cancer Center houses the Margaret Proctor Mulligan Breast Health and Research Program.

Six MU faculty members have been appointed to fill endowed professorships created by the donation. School of Medicine spokesman Rich Gleba said Mulligan's estate is still being processed, but that they are expecting that they'll be able to create more than four additional endowed professorships.

"It is possible some of those could go to people we are in the process of recruiting," Gleba said.

He said the school received an additional $1 million today, so they would be announcing more appointments soon. Each endowed professorship is valued at $550,000.

The current faculty members appointed to the professorships include Mulligan Breast Health and Research Program Director Paul Dale, medical pharmacology and physiology professor George Davis, molecular microbiology and immunology associate professor Dongsheng Duan, National Cancer Institute Nanotechnology Platform Director Kattesh Katti, Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center Director Gerald Meininger and pathology and anatomical sciences department Vice Chairwoman for Research Sharon Stack.