Chan family donates $175 mil to UMass Medical

WORCESTER, Mass. — University of Massachusetts officials on Tuesday morning are celebrating another whopper of a gift. This time it’s a $175 million donation from The Morningside Foundation that will more than double the endowment of the UMass Medical School.

The massive donation honors the late patriarch and matriarch of the Chan family, T.H. Chan and Tan Chingfen.

“The Morningside Foundation and the Chan family are proud to honor their patriarch and matriarch’s legacy and their deep commitment to the advancement of health and education. There is a powerful alchemy and very special culture at UMass Medical School in which the whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” the foundation, which is the Chan family’s investment group, said in a statement.

Gov. Charlie Baker, Medical School Chancellor Michael Collins, UMass President Martin Meehan, and members of the UMass Board plan to gather at the UMass Club in Boston Tuesday at 10 a.m. for a media availability to mark the donation.

In recognition of the gift, UMass Medical School will be renamed the UMass Chan Medical School. Its three graduate schools will be renamed: the T.H. Chan School of Medicine; the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing; and the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

“This gift is a powerful statement about the stature and the potential of our medical school, a very special place,” Collins said. “The confidence this historic gift conveys about our medical school is breathtaking, permitting us to recruit renowned and innovative faculty, conduct more breakthrough biomedical research, offer financial support to highly qualified and diverse students; and be ever more expansive in fulfilling our public service mission.”

The news comes a week after Robert and Donna Manning of Swampscott announced plans to give UMass $50 million to increase access and opportunity across the five-campus university system.

The medical school in Worcester is celebrating its 50th year of “educating future physicians, nursing leaders and biomedical scientists and as its Nobel Prize-winning research enterprise has grown to $400 million,” according to UMass.

Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito plans at 4 p.m. Tuesday to join Meehan and Collins for an “announcement” at UMass in Worcester.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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