The Donald and Victoria Hess Endowed Memorial Fund

The Donald and Victoria Hess Endowed Memorial Fund has been established to benefit the Hauptman-Woodward Institute and to honor the longtime contributions of Don and Vicky Hess. The fund was created by Chuck Dowdell, Don’s longtime business partner and good friend. The goal of the Donald and Victoria Hess Endowment fund is to raise permanent funds to further secure the financial strength of Hauptman-Woodward Medical Research Institute.

Don and Vicky were killed in a plane crash on November 13, 2008. They were on their way to Florida to visit with family when the accident occurred.

Don, a native of Rochester, New York, graduated with an Engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chuck and Don co-founded Amherst Systems Inc. in 1975 and became business partners and life-long friends. After his retirement from Amherst Systems Inc., Don donated many hours of technical support in HWI’s crystallography laboratory. He then joined HWI as a board member in 2000 and beginning in may 2005 served as Chairman of the Board until his death.

“It was truly an honor to work with Don on HWI’s Board of Directors. He provided the strength, passion and leadership to help HWI’s continued development and success,” James Biltekoff, chairman of HWI’s Board of Directors, said.

Hannelore Victoria Hess, referred to as Vicky, was born in Munich, Germany. She moved to the United States to pursue studies in English. She received both her bachelor’s degree and her master’s degree in Linguistics from the State University of New York at Buffalo. An avid world traveler, she enjoyed skiing and hiking, and was an enthusiastic collector of contemporary art and furniture. She served as a member of the Brookfield Country Club, the Twentieth Century Club, the Clarence Contemporary Club, UB World Connect and the Buffalo Schwaben Choir.

HWI will invest the earnings from the Donald and Victoria Hess Endowment Fund in basic research and in the search for cures to a variety of diseases. The support will focus mainly on new scientist hires and on the Scientific Chair Program. Throughout the next decade HWI intends to hire scientists who will bring innovative ideas and new areas of expertise to our renowned faculty. The Scientific Chair Program is designed to maximize the productivity of HWI scientists and to improve their position when they compete for research grants. Specifically the program will support original research projects or extensions of existing ones, provide matching funds for grant requests, and enable HWI to purchase needed laboratory equipment.

“Our financial stability is important to our ability to continue our work on the basic biomedical research that will unlock key information needed to better treat an array of major diseases,” according to Dr. Ed Lattman, HWI chief executive officer and executive director.

The Hess endowment funds will be raised through community outreach and may be gifted through a variety of methods including monthly and quarterly payments over a multi-year period, annual investments for three or more years, fulfillment payments by participating companies, and foundation matching grants. In addition to the long-term vision for the Fund, HWI has set short-term annual goals, such as increasing the number of donors, number of people seeking donors, and the sum of money donated.

 “Every individual’s contribution, no matter how small, can make a big difference,” Dowdell, Hess Endowment Fund chairman, said.

Your support of the Hess endowment fund can help shorten the time to achieve cures for major diseases such as breast cancer and AIDS. “By contributing to the Donald and Victoria Hess Endowed Memorial Fund, you have the potential to change history and, more importantly, save lives,” noted Laurie Elliott Krajna, HWI development director,. “As a world leader in structural biology research, HWI is clearly a worthwhile investment.”