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The Packard Center could never survive without people who pour energy—and sometimes musical or sports prowess—into building support. Here we recognize several who made ALS research a personal mission.
The Emily Davie and
Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation
At the core of every viable organization are visionaries, people who realize what it takes to change the status quo. In 1999, a year after his wife, Jean, was diagnosed with ALS, Chris Angell saw the bigger picture. As president of the Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation—a philanthropic organization supporting programs for patients in medical research, palliative care and education—Angell thought it high time for a streamlined, aggressive approach to ALS research.
He met with San Francisco investment banker Bob Packard, who’d just returned from Hopkins with a diagnosis confirming his ALS. “We’d both recognized that ALS research had been neglected, that it suffered from insufficient resources and organization as well as vision,” Angell recalls. “We resolved to do something.”
So, in February 2000, with seed money from the Baltimore Orioles plus pledges of $4 million from both the Kornfeld Foundation and the Robert Packard Foundation, the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins began. Angell and his wife, Jean—both Harvard-trained lawyers and Packard Center board members—have fostered ALS advocacy not only at the Center, but in their family. Like their parents, all three Angell children are Harvard graduates, determined to raise awareness about the disease. Daughter Elizabeth, a writer, is completing a book about her mother’s experience. Their other daughter, Margaret, a nationally ranked distance runner, has organized marathon teams that raised more than $600,000 for ALS research.
Chris Angell’s foresight has made the Center the only research institution of its kind dedicated solely to curing the disease. Envisioning breakthroughs, he says, “We’ll conquer ALS one day, not by avoiding the best or most vigorous science, but by organizing and harnessing that science.”
Tom Watson and the Packard Cup
Golf pro Tom Watson and his caddy Bruce Edwards shared 30 years of triumphs and defeats on golf courses across America. But the biggest blow to Watson’s shining career came two years ago, when he learned that Edwards—a dear friend—was diagnosed with ALS.
The news drove Watson to raise money to hasten a cure. He joined forces with the Center to participate in the 2003 Bob Packard Cup at Stanford University. Packard board member Anne Martin and Ken Hagen, president of the San Francisco Packard Foundation, orchestrated the collaboration with finesse, and it paid off: The debut golf tournament raised more than $500,000. This fall’s Bob Packard Cup—in memory of Edwards, who died last April—is expected to raise even more money.
“Unfortunately, Bruce didn’t live to see those funds give rise to a cure,” Watson says, “but I will continue to help others fight this devastating disease.” He remains impressed with the Packard Center’s progress: “Scientists there are on the leading edge of discovering how ALS occurs, and they’re dedicated to translating their basic research into real therapy for today’s patients.”
A Special Evening of Tribute: Tony Bennett
For more than 50 years, Grammy winner Tony Bennett’s silky voice and creative interpretations of Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and others have endeared him to millions worldwide. And last June, in a tribute to his late friend Chef Mimmo Cricchio, Bennett performed in a crowded Baltimore symphony hall, raising money for the Packard Center.
A frequent guest at Cricchio’s restaurant, Da Mimmo, Bennett befriended the chef and his wife, Mary Ann. The restaurant now counts celebrities and corporate executives as loyal customers. Richard McCready, for example, chairman and CEO of a Baltimore sales and marketing firm, has been a regular. When Mary Ann Cricchio learned about McCready’s ties to the Packard Center—he’s a board member—she decided to embrace the cause. McCready’s mother died of ALS.
“As we heard more about friends who had loved ones stricken with this horrible disease,” says Mary Ann Cricchio, “we wanted to help support ALS research.” So McCready, Cricchio and Joe Foss—Packard Center board member and Baltimore Orioles COO—decided to tie friendship and a great cause together. They asked Tony Bennett to sing. The memorable evening, which included a sponsorship dinner after the concert, raised $250,000 for the Center.