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HENRIETTA LEE HAS made the first installment of a $5 million gift to expand and improve the USC/ Norris Breast Center into a state-of-the-art research and treatment facility and recruit top physicians and researchers to lead it.
Named for Lee and her late husband, the 5,000-square-foot Harold E. and Henrietta C. Lee Breast Center will be located on the first floor of the USC/Norris Hospital. Cancer claimed Harold Lee’s life and also struck the Lees’ niece, Patricia R. Jones.
Even before cancer touched their lives, the Lees planned to play a significant role in the fight against the disease by leaving the majority of their estate to fund medical research. In light of the loss of her husband and niece, Henrietta Lee grew more eager to support current research to help cure the disease.
About that time, she received a letter from the USC/Norris in which former NBC “Today Show” medical consultant Art Ulene, chair of the Norris Develop-ment Board, pointed to the desperate need for private donors to fund promising research that would otherwise languish.
In taking the message to heart, Lee said that aiding the Cancer Center fulfills the dream she shared with her husband: “I feel honored to be able to do this because I knew that the USC/Norris has been doing a wonderful job fighting cancer and I wanted to help.”
Ulene praised Lee’s generosity and vision, saying that “she has come through with an extraordinary gift that will fund both research and clinical care and make a huge difference in the lives of women for years to come. It is private donations like these that allow us to take the first steps with innovative projects that, in my opinion, will ultimately lead to the cure for cancer.”
Ulene was struck by the unassuming manner in which Lee made possible such a major advance for the Norris.
“We tried to impress upon her the enormous importance of this gift, but she’s such a modest person that she refused to take personal credit,” he said. “We were all just amazed by the generosity and humility of this woman. As far as she is concerned, this was simply the right thing to do. She told us she was grateful she could do it.”
CANCER CENTER DIRECTOR Peter Jones said the gift, among other benefits, has enabled the USC/Norris to recruit Mel Silverstein, an internationally respected surgeon and specialist in research and clinical treatment of breast cancer.
Silverstein, who developed the acclaimed Van Nuys Breast Center and wrote a definitive book on breast cancer, has agreed to head the new center. He will serve as medical director of the Breast Center and co-leader of the breast cancer research program.
Silverstein will hold one of two endowed chairs in cancer research. The other will be filled by Michael Press, professor of pathology and medicine and the USC/Norris’ leading basic scientist in the study of the molecular and genetic causes of breast and ovarian cancer.
John Baker, director of major gifts for the USC/Norris, called the $5 million gift “one of the most important ever given to the Norris because of the number of people it will help. It will help create one of the premier breast centers in the nation and help us provide the most modern equipment for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.
“It’s a landmark gift for us. It’s really incredible,” he said.
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