UMass Chan receives $35M, third-largest UMass system donation ever
Photo | Courtesy of UMass Chan Medical School
UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester unveiled its $350-million New Education and Research Building in a June 7 ribbon cutting ceremony.
UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester has received the third-largest donation in the entire UMass system’s history, prompting the medical school’s chancellor to recommend the New Education and Research Building be renamed after the donor.
UMass Chan has received a $35-million donation from the Florida-based Paul J. DiMare Foundation, gifted in an effort to support the school’s research of neurodegenerative and genetic diseases, particularly ALS, and to recruit biomedical research faculty members, according to a Thursday press release.
Having begun working for his family’s produce business located at Haymarket Square in Boston as an 11 year old, DiMare helped grow the DiMare Co. to one of the largest fresh-market tomato growers and distributors in the nation.
“This tremendous gift is a bold endorsement for life-changing biomedical research and will undoubtedly advance UMass Chan’s mission to change the course of history of disease, while simultaneously bolstering Mr. DiMare’s enduring legacy, characterized by his astute, innovative and engaged business acumen; good will; and generous commitment to the greater good,” UMass Chan Chancellor Dr. Michael Collins said in the release.
Collins has recommended to the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees that UMass Chan’s NERB be named the Paul J. DiMare Center in honor of the Belmont native. The board is anticipated to vote on the proposition at its upcoming April meeting.
UMass Chan unveiled the 350,000-square-foot NERB on June 7 following four years of construction totalling $350 million. The nine-floor building is home to more than 70 principal investigators focusing on both rare and common disease research.
“As chairman of the UMass Board of Trustees, I am extremely grateful to the DiMare family for this historic gift to the university and their commitment to the mission of the state’s only public medical school. UMass Chan Medical School is a leader in groundbreaking research to develop cures and treatments for many neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS, and this generous gift will make this important work possible for generations of researchers and scientists,” UMass Board of Trustees Chair Stephen Karam said in the release.
The $35-million donation from DiMare comes four years after the medical school received a $175-million donation from The Morningside Foundation, which is based in Hong Kong and prompted the Worcester institution to change its name from UMass Medical School to UMass Chan Medical School.
Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.
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