Ranking as the largest donation in the history of Dartmouth Medical School and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Peter Williamson '58 and his wife Susan pledged $20 million to DMS and to DHMC, Dartmouth announced Friday.
Williamson is a professor of neurology at the Medical School and the director of DHMC's Epilepsy program, which he founded in 1991. Before returning to Dartmouth in 1991, Williamson had spent 20 years as the head of the epilepsy program at Yale university. He was awarded the J. Kiffin Perry Award for Excellence in Epilepsy Care by the American Epilepsy Society in 2002.
While the College will determine allocation of the funding in conjunction with DMS, the bulk of the gift will go towards what he called "translational research," which is concerned with adapting laboratory discoveries to use in patient care, according to Williamson.
"[Translational research] is kind of a buzz word we have right now," Williamson said. "We're trying to develop methods of getting important discoveries from the bench to the bedside faster."
Brian Lally, the vice president of development for DMS, called the gift "inspiring."
"[The gift] was impressive as all heck to me, to think about someone who tends to be so thoughtful to an organization," Lally said.
Lally pointed out that Williamson has a long history of Dartmouth involvement.
"He's a member of the class of 1958, his father's a Dartmouth man, his father-in-law went to Dartmouth, and he loves this place. The gift fits exactly with his character, and that of his wife Susan. By making this gift, and supporting translational research, they are taking care of the people in this community," he said.
Stephen Spielberg, dean of DMS, explained that although the donation goes exclusively to DMS, its effects will be felt elsewhere.
"The medical school feels very much a part of the College, and frankly we are very happy to be an integral part of the College in terms of the academic and intellectual life of the school," he said. "Clearly the focus of the gift is going to be within the medical school, but if you think about it, on any given day, probably 100 Dartmouth undergrads are learning science in the laboratories in the medical school, and the medical school plays a very active role in the undergraduate education."
Williamson, who is also the chair of the DMS and DHMC Transforming Medicine Campaign, said the timing of the gift was appropriate.
"We hope that this gift is something that will hopefully promote further giving," he said.
The Transforming Medicine campaign, part of the College's $1.3 billion capital campaign, has to date received approximately $193 million. Its goal is $250 million.
When asked about the aspects of his Dartmouth experience that left such an indelible mark on him, Williamson asked this reporter, "Are you a Dartmouth student?"
He continued. "Then you should be able to answer that for yourself."
