Palm Beach Resident Marjorie Fink Gives $1 Million to Scripps Research

Following close on the heels of last week's announcement of a $1 million gift from Alexander and Renate Dreyfoos, this week The Scripps Research Institute received more good news—Palm Beach resident Marjorie Fink has decided that she, too, will give the institute $1 million.

"We are enormously grateful for Majorie's generosity and foresight," says Scripps Research President Richard A. Lerner. "Her gift will support the basic science that will lead to improvements in health and quality of life."

As a resident of Palm Beach, Fink (who also has a home in the Syracuse, NY, area) knew that Scripps Research was in the process of launching a new campus, dubbed Scripps Florida. Scripps Florida will focus on basic biomedical science, drug discovery, and technology development, and will employ more than 500 researchers and support staff in Palm Beach County by 2010.

On a trip to California last month, Fink learned more about Scripps Research. She visited its main campus in La Jolla, touring laboratories and speaking with several investigators—Molecular and Experimental Medicine Chair Ernest Beutler; Immunology Professor Hugh Rosen; Chemistry Professor, Dean of Graduate Studies, and Vice President for Scientific Affairs Jeff Kelly; and Molecular and Experimental Medicine Professor Peter Vogt.

She also attended a party at the La Jolla home of businessman and philanthropist Ron Burkle, held to honor the three Nobel laureates and 16 members of the National Academy of Sciences on the Scripps Research faculty.  

Fink was impressed—so impressed, in fact, that she pledged a gift to the institute of $1 million over 10 years. Fink had lost her husband, Rodney, to lung cancer three years earlier, and recognized the need for science to push forward the frontiers of medicine.

Her gift will help Scripps Research scientists accomplish just that.

Send comments to: mikaono[at]scripps.edu

"[Marjorie Fink's] gift will support the basic science that will lead to improvements in health and quality of life."

—Richard A. Lerner