(Left to right) Bill Greehey, chairman of the board of NuStar Energy LLP, visits with President William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP, and H-E-B Chairman and CEO Charles Butt. In 2007, The Greehey Family Foundation donated $25 million, one of the largest private gifts ever received by the UT Health Science Center. The Charles Butt and H-E-B Excellence Fund for the Future of Health was established at the gala.
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By Rosanne Fohn

More than 1,300 community and academic leaders came together Sept. 17 to help ignite science and advance the future of health at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio’s annual President’s Gala.

The gala raised more than $500,000 and established the Charles Butt and H-E-B Excellence Fund for the Future of Health, which will support all aspects of the university’s programs and missions, from education of clinicians and scientists to the translation of scientific discoveries for the health and wellness of the community.

In establishing the fund, President William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP, noted the humility and commitment of H-E-B Chairman and CEO Charles Butt — a longtime member of the Health Science Center’s Development Board — to bettering the community. “Where would we be without the enormous contributions of time, talent and resources given by Charles and the H-E-B partners across our state? Each one of us has benefited in some way from their generosity,” President Henrich said.

Related links: See more pictures View the video from the gala

Education is the key
He called attention to the H-E-B Read 3 Campaign, designed to encourage regular reading to children by parents and family. President Henrich said that if they were asked, he, Charles Butt and former Gov. Dolph Briscoe, now deceased, would have all agreed that the secret to moving the city, state and country forward would be “to invest your dollar in education before you even think about anything else.”

Craig Boyan, president and chief operating officer of H-E-B, said, “Education and health care are two of the major needs in the state and they are our top two priorities. This is why we are working with the Health Science Center to turn the tide in Texas and why we have donated $15 million to the Health Science Center. Dr. Henrich, we are proud of what you and your colleagues at the Health Science Center are doing. Your students are going to become the future health care providers throughout the state of Texas. It is our honor to be working with you. On behalf of our 76,000 employees, Charles Butt and our senior leadership team, we want you to know how much we appreciate what you are doing for the state of Texas.”

H-E-B has been a longstanding supporter of biomedical education and research at the Health Science Center. The H-E-B Clinical Skills Center provides 1,000 future physicians, nurses and physician assistants each year with the chance to learn patient-communication and physical-examination skills in simulated patient encounters, before they ever use these skills with patients. In addition, the H-E-B Surgical Oncology Center at the Health Science Center's Cancer Therapy & Research Center, and the Children’s Cancer Research Institute Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Oncology share the Health Science Center's mission to improve the health and wellness of the community.

President William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP (center) introduces patients Larysa Sholom and Dave Ashwin to the audience following the showing of a video featuring their successful recoveries under the care of UT Medicine San Antonio physicians.

Making lives better
During the gala, donors saw a video featuring the stories of two patients who received care through the UT Health Science Center’s Cancer Therapy & Research Center, UT Medicine San Antonio and the University Transplant Center, a partnership of University Health System and the UT Health Science Center.

Dave Ashwin, husband of Kathy Ashwin, director of the H-E-B Tournament of Champions, was diagnosed with Stage 3 lung cancer. Surgery was performed by Jay Pal, M.D., Ph.D., a UT Medicine San Antonio surgeon and assistant professor of cardiothoracic surgery. Ashwin’s follow-up treatment was chemotherapy and radiation at CTRC. “The Health Science Center has given me life,” Dave Ashwin said. “I have a better life. I’m playing golf. I’m taking trips. I’m feeling wonderful. Golly, it’s just so good!”

Larysa Sholom, a supply and trading business associate at NuStar Energy LLP, was suffering from a rare lung disease. She was in a great deal of pain and was told she had just a year to live. She sought treatment at UT Medicine San Antonio from Luis Angel, M.D., associate professor of surgery and medical director of the lung transplant program at University Transplant Center, and Scott B. Johnson, M.D., associate professor and head of the Section of General Thoracic Surgery.

“It’s a nice thing that there’s a future. It’s wasn’t there before,” Sholom said. “I just feel that my life got so full and so abundant and now there are so many possibilities. I am happy and healthy and I’m eternally grateful for that. I never expected it to be this much better.”

Following the video, President Henrich introduced Sholom and Ashwin to the gala guests and said, “These miracles would have been impossible without education, without science and without the intrepid human spirit.”

To make a contribution to the Charles Butt and H-E-B Excellence Fund for the Future of Health, please visit https://makelivesbetter.uthscsa.edu/HEBfund.