$150M gift will transform cancer research, care at U-M

Richard and Susan Rogel have pledged $150 million to the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Richard and Susan Rogel are on a mission to boost innovative cancer research and develop the next generation of cancer pioneers — and they are pledging $150 million to the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center to realize that vision.

The gift is the largest ever to Michigan Medicine and one of the largest in the university’s history.

This transformational gift will enable Michigan Medicine to draw on its collaborative research culture to drive cancer care forward. It will help attract and support outstanding cancer researchers from around the world, including the most promising fellows and trainees, making U-M a premier center fostering the development of new leaders in cancer research and care.

Later today, the U-M board of regents will be asked to approve a new name — the U-M Rogel Cancer Center — in honor of the Rogels’ many years of giving and service. With their latest gift, the Rogels are now the second largest individual donors to the university.

The couple has a personal motivation to invest in cancer research. Richard Rogel, a U-M alum, lost his father to pancreatic cancer. Both of Susan Rogel’s parents died of cancer long ago and her 50-year-old daughter, Ilene, died five years ago from an aggressive form of lung cancer.

With few treatments available to help Ilene, “it made us want to do more to help with the fight against cancer,” said Richard Rogel. “It’s as simple as that. The problems we face in health care today are phenomenally complex. We need different minds looking at the same problem in different ways.”

“[U-M has] the advantage of 97 graduate departments rated in the top 10 in the country,” Rogel added. “Putting all this brain power and excitement together is going to help us find a cure for cancer. It will make people’s lives better.”

“This generous gift brings major new opportunities for our cancer center to dramatically increase the pace of generating important advances in the cancer field,” said Eric R. Fearon, M.D., Ph.D., Emmanuel N. Maisel Professor of Oncology and director of the Cancer Center.

Click here to check out a video and learn more about the Rogels, their gift, and how it will support the development of promising scientists and leverage the university’s strengths in science, medicine and innovation.