Bud Meyerhoff Pledges $3 Million to Johns Hopkins Campaign

Meyerhoff's pledge, which he called his family's "initial" campaign commitment, includes $2 million to support the planned new cancer research and treatment facilities of The Johns Hopkins University and The Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Of the remaining $1 million, $500,000 will endow the Harvey M. and Lyn P. Meyerhoff Fellowships at the university's Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.

The other $500,000 will endow fellowships in the Meyerhoff Cancer Prevention Program and support the Philip Franklin Wagley Chair in bioethics, both in the School of Hygiene and Public Health.

Meyerhoff, a former chairman of the board of trustees of the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System, has served many years on the boards of both the health system and university. Daniel Nathans, the university's interim president, called him "a consummate advocate" for Hopkins.

"Bud Meyerhoff's leadership, vision, generosity, dedication all help steer and maintain our course," Nathans said. "We are deeply grateful for all he has done."

"To engage fully in life, all of us need strong minds and healthy bodies, which are essentially the goals of all endeavors at Johns Hopkins," Meyerhoff said. "I want to help ensure that Hopkins will continue to excel in these endeavors. I will do whatever I can to see that this takes place."

Meyerhoff and his family have been extraordinarily generous to Johns Hopkins over the years. During the Campaign for Johns Hopkins in the 1980s, for example, he and his late wife, Lyn, funded the Meyerhoff Center for Digestive Diseases at the medical institutions and the William Foxwell Albright Chair in Near Eastern Studies at the School of Arts and Sciences.

Bud Meyerhoff is the son of the late Joseph Meyerhoff, the well-known Baltimore builder and philanthropist for whom Baltimore's symphony hall is named. Like his father, Meyerhoff acts from a sense of philanthropy that has deep spiritual and humanitarian roots. "I am my brother's keeper," he said. "This belief is what forms human society, what distinguishes man from beast. When people care only about themselves, society breaks down. Law, religion, concern for others; these are the warp and woof of society's fabric."

Meyerhoff, who has chaired campaigns for the United Way and the Associated Jewish Charities, was appointed by President Reagan as chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, which raised over $150 million to build the National Holocaust Museum on the Mall in Washington, D.C. He also has served, often as chairman, on the boards of the National Association of Homebuilders, Sinai Hospital, the League for the Handicapped, and the Maryland Chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.

The $900 million Johns Hopkins Initiative, launched publicly in the fall of 1994, is aimed primarily at raising funds for endowment and other capital purposes of the Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System. Over 70 percent of the endowment goal and more than 60 percent of the overall goal have been raised. The campaign is scheduled to close in 2000.

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