How did you get connected to Children’s?
My son Doug, now 29, was having a little problem in the middle of the
night when he was a toddler, and we took him to Children’s emergency
room. He was dehydrated, and we stayed the night. In the morning, as
we were leaving, my wife Jill and I ran into a friend that I grew up
with, and she asked Jill to become involved with Children’s. So
Jill got actively involved in the Children’s Hospital League,
which is a very successful fundraising arm of the hospital, quickly
became its president, and started the Festival of Trees. One day, hospital
leadership came to her and asked whether I would be willing to give
some advice on real estate. I gave my advice, and I’ve been here
ever since.
What drives you to give that much time
and effort to Children’s?
I periodically take a tour of the hospital, usually with other donors
whom I’m trying to involve with Children’s, and we meet
a couple of the doctors and nurses on the floors. It inspires a lot
of pride to see some of the things that the staff are doing, and I get
a bit emotional each time I walk through here. It reminds me that I’m
doing what I’m doing for Children’s because I think it makes
a difference.
You, your wife, son and daughter just
made the biggest donation in the history of Children’s. Why did
your family select the new research building?
There are so many things at Children’s that need financial support,
but the new research building was one that I was intimately involved
in from its inception to its opening. We made the decision because we
have top researchers, like Judah
Folkman, Len
Zon, and Mark Keating, who deserve and
need the space to do their work. I remember Sam
Lux saying, “We can’t bring the best in the
world here and keep them here unless we have the space to let them do
the things that they can do.” My family is proud to support these
brilliant scientists in their work.
You’ve also been very committed
to making sure Children’s is invested in community health. Why?
I’ve always been interested in children and concerned with children
in the inner city. My daughter teaches the third grade at a Catholic
school in Roxbury. It’s a hard job sometimes, but she does it
because it makes her feel good every day that she makes a difference.
It makes me feel good to think that she has learned that some place.
I think people within the community don’t recognize how much Children’s
does for kids in the inner city. All they know is that Boston residents
use us as their primary care provider and come to our emergency rooms.
But we do more than that and I think we should all be very proud about
that part of our mission.
In your sixth month as chairman, what
kind of changes do you foresee?
We’re committed to a mission that isn’t going to change.
However, to meet that mission some things will have to change. To improve
access, we may have to continue to extend our success outside of the
Longwood Medical Area and into the suburbs. We are making some plans
to be able to extend our efforts, and I think that we will start to
see the results of that in the next few years. There are a number of
things that we have started to do that are in the infant stage, but
that will pay dividends in the future.
As a retail real estate developer, you
are very conscious of how people experience buildings. What are your
thoughts about our facility?
There are other children’s hospitals in the country that have
been able to make their hospitals look more like a kid’s place
or a children’s environment, and I think we haven’t had
the ability to do that in the past because we haven’t been in
the financial position to spend money like that. We now have a big gap
to fill to make sure we make some physical changes that help not only
the patients and the families feel a lot better, but also the people
working here.
What would you like to say to the employees
and medical staff at Children’s?
I think that we’re the best in the world at taking care of children,
and that’s not because we have the best buildings, it’s
because we have the best people. The more involved I become in the hospital,
the more I recognize the talent that we have. The way everybody here
comes together when we hit some difficult times is really encouraging
to me. I was at a recent Open Meeting, and seeing Jim Mandell in front
of a group of people that came from all over the hospital to be supportive
and give good suggestions made me feel like we were part of a family
that was really working. Nothing is perfect, and I don’t think
we are perfect, but if we think of ourselves as a family, working together
trying to create something so that the children of this world will be
better off after we are not here, then I think we are all doing the
right thing.