Dean's Newsletter

Archive of previous newsletters

The Robert and Lillian Brent White Coat Ceremony

September 06, 2006

Soon after I posted the last newsletter that contained the White Coat Ceremony speeches of Alexis Mott and Dr. Barbara Asselin, many of you wrote emails or stopped me in the hall.  "Eloquent," "inspiring," "profoundly human," were some of your reactions, and (from two students) "awesome."  I'm sure that all who read the words of our student and faculty speakers were similarly moved.

In that newsletter, I conveyed my belief that this year's White Coat Ceremony was special for two reasons.  One reason was the power of the speakers' presentations. The other was the naming of the White Coat Ceremony, which is the subject of this week's newsletter.

Beginning this year, and continuing annually, our ceremony that welcomes new medical students into the profession of medicine will be called the "Robert and Lillian Brent White Coat Ceremony," in honor of Dr. Robert and Lillian Brent, who have given so much to support our students.   As alumni of the College (Bob and Lillian both) and as an alumnus of the School of Medicine (Bob, with Lillian sharing every moment vicariously), they have committed not only their substantial financial support to alumni affairs and innovative student scholarship programs, but their time and energy as well.

Dr. Robert and Lillian Brent

Robert Brent was born in Rochester, N.Y. in 1927 and received from the University of Rochester his AB, ('49), MD with honor ('53), Ph.D. ('55), and an Honorary D.Sc. (1988).  Lillian was also born in Rochester, New York and attended Benjamin Franklin High School.  She was an English Honors major at the University of Rochester and received her A.B. in 1950.  Bob had his first vision of Lillian when they were both in the milk and cookie line of a summer camp at the age of eight.  As he tells it, he "figuratively never took his eyes off her forever."  They were married at 21, one year before Lillian completed college and just before Bob began medical school.

From the time that I first met Bob in 1997, when he gave a Grand Rounds to our Ob/Gyn Department on the effects of environmental agents on fetal development, and continuing during my time as Dean, he and Lillian have repeatedly stated their view that "next to your family there's nothing more important than your education," and that in particular they are "deeply indebted to the University of Rochester for the superb foundation that it provided for the rest of their lives."  Commenting on medical education generally, Dr. Brent states that: "No other block of four years changes your life more fundamentally in terms of defining who you are and what you will do." On SMD specifically, Bob believes that he received an education "second to none," and that their "love for the medical school combined with alarm about the mounting indebtedness of medical students, propels us to try to do something that will make a real difference."

What Bob and Lillian have done is donate a $1 million cash gift to support an innovative medical student scholarship endowment that incorporates self-perpetuation with an integrated multiplier effect.  The basic idea is that the income from the endowment would not initially be spent on scholarship aid but rather be used to create the nidus of a Class Gift (the first will be the Class of 2008), which itself would grow over time due to investment performance of the endowment augmented by contributions from the Class.  Each successive graduating medical school class would have a new Class Gift started by the income from the corpus of the endowment, which would also grow across time.  The Brent vision is that the accumulated amounts contained in each Class Gift fund would reach a level that would support a full scholarship, and that as successive classes reach this goal, tuition at the medical school would be completely endowed.

This vision, which will be called the "Tuition Free Program" in our fundraising materials, will be supported by three other important elements. 

First, the School will seek to increase the initial corpus of the Tuition Free Fund from $1 million to $3 million, with Dr. Brent serving an important role as a "volunteer Development Officer," communicating this message to alumni and friends of the School of Medicine and Dentistry.  We seek 200 alumni and friends each to contribute $10,000 to the Tuition Free Program, which will provide an additional $2 million. 

Second, Bob and Lillian have already been supporting an "Early Alumni Participation Program" for the past 5 years, in which they have made a contribution to the School's scholarship fund on behalf of each medical school graduate who received their M.D. between one and five years earlier.  Since most of these young alumni are still in residency 1-5 years after graduation, this gift on their behalf recognizes that they may not be capable financially to contribute themselves.  However, it is hoped that the spirit of 100% participation from the class in the annual fund drive for the School continues in the 6th year after graduation and beyond, whether for scholarship, educational technology, the library, research, a particular Department, or some other purpose.  The Brents plan to endow the Early Alumni Program as well, so that it too is self perpetuating. 

And third, it is my hope, and that of the Brents, that the successive classes who receive their "starter" Class Gift (which when the fund reaches $3 million will be $165,000) will use it as an impetus to fulfill the vision of a tuition-free medical school.  As Dr. Brent has often said, "contributing to the medical school is not a ‘giving back'; it is an obligation that follows the Hippocratic Oath, which holds that we're all brothers and sisters and are obliged to help one another." 

The vision is attainable.  Let's assume that the $3 million core endowment will be reached by year 3.  Given the historic rate of return on the University endowment of 8% per year, and assuming that the average gift of an SMD graduate to the Tuition Free Program (quite apart from gifts to other medical school interests) starts at $100 (in current dollars) and increases in steps to $1000 at year 20 and $2000 at year 30, the Class Scholarship fund that begins at $165,000 in year 1 grows to $896,000 in year 10, $3,190,000 in year 20 and $9,127,000 in year 30.  Thus, at a spending rate of 5.5%, at year 30 the fund would generate $414,000 in scholarship aid for that year, and would increase even further in subsequent years.  Assuming a 4% per year increase in tuition, the tuition at that time would be $121,000.  Thus, this class could fund about 31/2 scholarships. And, at year 30, right behind this Class would be 29 other Class Scholarships, building year after year.  The accumulated value of the gifts for the 30 Classes at that point would be $84,820,000!

Who is this extraordinary couple who not only "put their money where their mouth is," but did so in such a novel and visionary fashion?  During medical school, Bob was elected to AOA as a third-year student and at graduation (1953) was awarded the Ritchie Memorial Prize in recognition of his research on the effects of radiation on the mammalian embryo.  He continued his research and obtained his Ph.D. in embryology and radiation biology in 1955.  He trained at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Pediatrics and spent an army tour at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research as Chief of Radiation Biology and Assistant Chief of Pediatrics, where he was involved in the nuclear bomb biological effects program and in radiation embryological research.       

Dr. Brent obtained his initial civilian academic appointment at Jefferson Medical School and has remained there for 49 years.  He was the Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics from November 1965 until January 1995 (almost 30 years), one of the longest U.S. Pediatric chairmanships.  The department has grown from three to 140 full-time faculty members at three pediatric facilities, including the newest ('89) affiliation at the duPont Hospital for Children, where Dr Brent currently directs the Clinical and Environmental Teratology Laboratory.  Among numerous awards at Jefferson, perhaps most notable is that in 1989 he was named the third Distinguished Professor in Jefferson's 181-year history.

Although a Pediatrician, Dr. Brent's research has focused on the genetic and environmental causes of birth defects and cancer.  His research attracted continuous federal (NIH, AEC, DOE) research funding as a principal investigator during his entire research career.  A training grant for doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows continued for 17 years; many graduates of this program are now distinguished scientists in their own right.  Dr. Brent was one of the founding members of the Teratology Society, was elected president in 1966 and was editor of its official Journal, Teratology.  He has published over 400 articles and 5 books, and has made 4 movies.  In recognition of his achievements, Dr. Brent has won numerous--and highly prestigious--professional awards and was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and to the National Council for Radiation Protection.

Although he is long past the usual age of retirement, Dr. Brent works full-time at the duPont Hospital for Children, where he heads the Environmental and Clinical Teratology Laboratory, attends morning report, lectures in the genetic course and teaches his very popular course to freshman Jefferson medical students, "Personal Problems of Physicians". Brent is still productive and active as a researcher, lecturer, scholar, clinician and consultant.

Well, where did the money come from, along with the focus on saving for the future and the spirit of philanthropy?  Enter Lillian.  Her first financial decision was to postpone their honeymoon because it conflicted with the date of a NYS exam for medical school scholarships.  Bob took the exam, was one of 50 awardees across the State, and entered medical school with a full scholarship.  The honeymoon came later--The Vanderbilt Hotel in Miami, $2.50 per night.

Lillian was indeed a child of the Great Depression and she remembers that frugality was a necessity during the 1930s. That frugality was a guiding principle in the Brent household.  During the two years that Bob spent at Walter Reed, his annual income was $7,000.   Lillian saved half of every paycheck and at the end of Bob's army tour had $7,000 for a down payment on a house.  While raising their family of four children with Bob, Lillian began taking graduate courses at Temple University on nights and weekends. She graduated with a Masters in Education the same year that their youngest daughter entered the first grade and worked full time as a reading specialist until she retired at 62.  Importantly for this story, the Brents did not spend any of Lillian's income; rather it was used for investment.  It was this investment program, over a long period, which has allowed them to pursue their philanthropic interests.  Her income allowed Bob to invest (quite successfully, I might add!), which he has been doing since 1956 when he made his first stock purchase.  This philosophy of investing for the future now guides the Tuition Free Program.

Bob and Lillian have both expected their children to be philanthropic as well, and have set up their estate so that their children and grandchildren can contribute to society and to those organizations that have been educationally generous to them and to their children.

Meliora,

David S. Guzick, MD, PhD
Dean, School of Medicine and Dentistry