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November 19, 2004 MDA’s Wings Over Wall
Street® Founder Toni M. Diamond Dies of ALS A United Airlines flight attendant for 22 years, Diamond handled her disease with courage and grace, said Warren Schiffer, her husband of 14 years, who was also a flight attendant.
Warren Schiffer and Toni Diamond Diamond was diagnosed with ALS in 2000. Shortly thereafter, she and her husband partnered with the Muscular Dystrophy Association to launch “Wings of Hope,” later renamed “Wings Over Wall Street.” The annual event became the largest fund-raiser for ALS research. Over the past four years, Diamond and Schiffer worked with the MDA Wings committee to raise more than $4 million. Proceeds were split evenly to support ALS research projects at the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig MDA/ALS Research Center at Columbia University and The Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins. Packard Center Director Jeff Rothstein remembers Diamond as engaging and resilient. “She championed ALS research with zeal and felt tremendous empathy for others in her situation. The Center will never forget her generosity and vision,” he said. Raised in rural Southwick, Mass., Diamond decided to make a career out of her passion for travel. While working for United Airlines, she met Schiffer, of Rockaway Beach, N.Y. The two married and moved to Rockaway Beach and later to Gaylordsville, Conn. They flew together often—frequently to Japan, their favorite destination. In the fall of 2000, during a layover in Japan, Diamond temporarily lost control of her left foot. She regained her step, but the symptom returned permanently two months later. She was diagnosed at Columbia University’s MDA/ALS Center. Determined not to let ALS define her existence, she and her husband joined forces with MDA and sought promising ALS research projects to support. When the disease became more debilitating, Diamond and Schiffer were forced to sell their new Connecticut home and move into her brother’s house in Cape Cod, where they built a handicapped-accessible basement apartment. Despite being on a ventilator and losing all movement in her legs and arms, Diamond attended the 2001 Wings of Hope. She traveled to New York by air ambulance and stayed at the event for three hours. Schiffer brought his wife on stage to receive the first “Spirit Award.” She also watched as Dr. Hiroshi Mitsumoto of Columbia University presented the first annual Diamond award—named for her—to Rothstein. Diamond returned for the 2002 and 2003 Wings Over Wall Street events, again by air ambulance, in spite of her deteriorating condition. She was unable to attend the 2004 event this past September but heard the crowd express their admiration for her when Schiffer called home via cell phone while on stage presenting the 2004 Diamond award. Besides her husband, survivors include her parents, Carol
Diamond, of Southwick, Mass. and Wayne Diamond of West Palm Beach, Fla.;
two brothers and sisters-in-law, Wayne and Vicki Diamond and Christopher
and Marcia Diamond; niece, Kelley; two nephews, Christopher and Nigel;
great-niece, Chiara; brother- and sister-in-law, Larry and Gail Schiffer;
two nieces, Jessica and Jamie; and mother-in-law, Alma Schiffer. |
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