Flexible aid drives innovation and progress

Such generous contributions enable the dean to strategically address emerging priorities, enrich student experiences, and leverage cutting-edge technologies across all departments to advance health care delivery.

“Discretionary support enables our faculty and students to advance the ideas that will have the greatest potential to help people live longer, healthier lives,” says HMS Dean George Q. Daley, AB ’82, MD ’91, PhD.

Donald S. Pierce, AB ’53, MD ’57, began his philanthropic journey with HMS in 1981 and remained steadfastly committed for decades. He was instrumental as a fundraising staff liaison, mobilizing his classmates to contribute toward Reunion class gifts. In honor of his 50th Reunion, Pierce and his wife, Janet, established the Donald S. Pierce and Janet T.B. Pierce Charitable Remainder Trust, which recently distributed significant funds to HMS. This strategic gift allowed the couple to transfer assets into a tax-exempt account managed by Harvard, providing income to designated beneficiaries while ensuring that the remainder would greatly benefit HMS. 

David E. Leith, MD ’57, also began his giving journey in 1981. His continual support of the School, spanning several decades, reflected his enduring commitment to HMS’s core educational mission. A recent substantial gift from the David E. Leith and Barbara R. Leith Trust—established by Leith and his wife, Barbara—ensures that this commitment lives on. “While he did not always support the administration, he did always support the education,” says the couple’s son Matthew Leith. 

Andrew G. Webster, AB ’36, MD ’40, dedicated his life to healing and comforting the sick, a commitment honored by his late wife, Catherine Marina Barrese Webster, through a bequest from her estate. Building on her husband’s legacy of several unrestricted gifts and a charitable gift annuity that provided HMS with essential flexible-use funds, Catherine continued to support HMS after his 2006 passing by making her own unrestricted donations. She also named two chairs in the Joseph B. Martin Conference Center Amphitheater in honor of Andrew and his father, Harrison Briggs Webster, AB 1905, MD 1909.