Contact: Tania Banak, University Relations Specialist
608/263-6716, banakt@svm.vetmed.wisc.edu
Date issued: April 8, 2008
Barbara Suran with her miniature poodle, Ch. Foxmore Naughty Nadine.
PHOTO CREDIT: Lee Ira Siegman, Ltd. Photography
MADISON – It happened much too soon. A mere two weeks after deciding to leave her estimated $6 million estate to the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, Milwaukee native Barbara A. Suran became ill.
Shortly thereafter, Barbara was diagnosed with cancer. She passed away on March 20, 2008, less than three months after signing an agreement to fund the Barbara A. Suran Oncology Research Institute with her estate.
“We’ve lost a wonderful friend and supporter,” said Dr. Daryl Buss, the school’s dean. “The day she signed the agreement, Barbara was smiling from ear to ear, knowing the creation of the Barbara A. Suran Oncology Research Institute would be the first of its kind at a school of veterinary medicine. Barbara’s institute will be a model for the country, but its creation happened too soon.”
Barbara’s decision to leave her estate to the Wisconsin’s School of Veterinary Medicine was based on her lifelong interest in science and medicine, both veterinary and human, along with the first-hand experience of losing two of her beloved standard poodles to cancer. After her poodle, Jamie, died of osteosarcoma in October 2007, Barbara heard about a dog in California that recovered from the same cancer after being given a new drug.
“I’m hoping Wisconsin can become the leader in cancer research,” Barbara told the school. “I’d like my gift to make Wisconsin number one in this field, and to benefit both dogs and people.”
The Barbara A. Suran Oncology Research Institute is poised to do just that. While the gift itself will not be available to the school for another 12 to 18 months, it will create an endowed chair in oncology and will provide the chair with a $3.5 million endowment for oncology research.
“We look forward to further recognizing and remembering Barbara as her dream of the institute becomes a reality,” Dr. Buss said. “This is an incredible step forward for the school. Naming a faculty chair in oncology, combined with the Barbara A. Suran Fund for Oncology Medical Science Research Excellence, will allow us to recruit the profession’s very best experts, who in turn help attract other quality faculty. We deeply appreciate Barbara’s gesture and her confidence in our oncology program and in our school.”