This past spring, Larry Freeman, founder and CEO of Freeman Cosmetics, pledged $5 million to name the Judy and Larry Freeman Cancer Day Hospital, an outpatient facility currently located on the first floor of the USC/Norris Cancer Hospital.

On July 12, the Cancer Center formally celebrated the naming of the Day Hospital with an intimate gathering of Freeman family and friends, replete with music, food and ribbon-cutting.

The Freemans have a long history of philanthropic giving to the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, influenced by the care their son, Mark, received there as a young man. At the age of 22, a complaint of shoulder pain led to a diagnosis of t-cell lymphoma. He was successfully treated with nine months of chemotherapy.

Larry Freeman joined the Board of the Cancer Center a few short years later. In 1988, he and his family—wife, Judy, Mark, and daughter, Jill, a graduate of the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences—launched the Freeman Aces Cancer Tennis Tournament (FACTT). Since its inception, the event has raised $3 million for the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center.

They have also endowed a chair in basic science with a $1.5 million gift from Freeman Cosmetics. Amy Lee, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and associate director of basic science at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, currently holds the Judy and Larry Freeman Chair in Basic Science.

“I have a debt I can never repay,” says Larry Freeman. “Before Mark got sick, someone gave money that helped develop the chemotherapy that saved his life. It is my hope that our donations can have a similar impact on other families dealing with a cancer diagnosis.”