UMass Medical School to change name after $175M gift

Photo | Grant Welker UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester

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By Katherine Hamilton

UMass Medical School in Worcester will receive a $175-million donation over the next five years from The Morningside Foundation, significantly growing the medical school’s endowment and prompting a name change, after the donors, according to a Tuesday press release.

UMass Medical School will be renamed the UMass Chan Medical School in recognition of The Morningside Foundation’s founders, the Chan family of Hong Kong, who launched the venture capital and private equity firm in 1986, per its website.

UMass Medical’s three graduate schools will be renamed the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, after the late patriarch of the family, the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing, after the family’s matriarch, and the Morningside Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

The gift is unrestricted, according to the school’s announcement, meaning UMass can do what it wants with the money.

The medical school endowment is currently $200 million, and the Morningside Foundation gift will add $35 million annually for five years, said UMass Medical School spokeswoman Sarah Wiley.

The Morningside Foundation, which has offices in Boston, donated $350 million to the Harvard Medical School in 2014, also prompting a name change at one of its schools, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, according to a report in the Harvard Gazette.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story said the Morningside Foundation donation will grow the UMass Medical School endowment by more than double. The endowment currently sits at $200 million, and the gift will add $35 million annually over the next five years.