Beart Selected as Chair for Colorectal Diseases

The Skirball Foundation pledges $2 million for the Audry Skirball-Kenis Chair.

by Alicia Di Rado

Colorectal surgeon Robert W. Beart Jr., M.D., professor of surgery at the Keck School of Medicine, has been selected as the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Chair for Colorectal Diseases.


The Skirball Foundation pledged $2 million for the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Chair, which aims to attract and retain accomplished researchers with an interest in colorectal diseases. It is the second endowed chair the foundation has funded at the Keck School of Medicine. Randy Sherman, M.D., professor of surgery and chief of the division of plastic and reconstructive surgery, currently holds the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Chair for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.


Audrey Skirball-Kenis died in 2002, after decades of philanthropy that benefited numerous cultural and medical institutions in Los Angeles, New York and beyond.


Born in Alabama as Audrey Marks, she moved to Southern California in the 1940s. She married Jack Skirball, a rabbi-turned-movie-producer who grew wealthy through real estate. The couple built the Skirball Cultural Center, a museum in west Los Angeles emphasizing Jewish heritage in America.


Jack Skirball died in 1985. In 1987, Audrey Skirball married Charles Kenis, an importer of French wines.


Audrey Skirball-Kenis was a trustee of the Skirball Foundation.


The Skirball Foundation’s pledge will further USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center’s research on colorectal diseases, Beart’s focus. Beart has been at USC since 1992, performing countless intricate operations not only for colon and rectal cancer, but also for inflammatory bowel disease and other bowel disorders.


Beart graduated from Harvard Medical School and interned at the University of Colorado Medical Center. He also performed his residency at the University of Colorado, where he was chief resident.


He trained under the accomplished surgeon Thomas Starzl, M.D., dubbed by some as the modern-day father of organ transplantation.


After joining the Mayo Clinic in 1977, Beart established Mayo’s Department of Colorectal Surgery. There, he developed the surgical technique accepted by most surgeons for ileoanal procedures—ileoanal anastomosis, or the J-pouch—a less-drastic alternative to traditional ileostomy.


Today, Beart is one of the leaders of the new Colorectal Center at the USC/Norris, a recently launched effort that unites all of USC/Norris’ cancer-fighting services in one spot. His research interests include laparoscopic colon resections, maintenance of fecal continence and management of recurrent colorectal cancer.


Besides the Audrey Skirball-Kenis Chair, Beart will continue to hold the Charles W. and Carolyn Costello Chair in Colorectal Diseases, which was established in 1999.