Robert Fox's gift puts his name on Wistar's $100M tower
His brother endowed Temple's business school
Robert Fox's gift puts his name on Wistar's $100M tower
Joseph N. DiStefano
The Wistar Institute says it's naming its $100 milllion, 90,000 sq ft, 7-story biomedical research building, now rising at its Spruce Street campus in University City, for donors Robert A. and Penny Fox. Robert Fox is a member of the family that's run industrial investments firm RAF for more than 50 years. His brother Richard is the named benefactor of Temple University's Fox business school.
The Wistar building, set to open in 2014, was funded with $18 million in taxpayer-funded Pennsylvania Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) grants, $55 million borrowed from Citizens Bank (after a $15 million initial revolving loan that financed initial construction), and $25 million from the $35 million capital campaign led by the Foxes. (Revised from original numbers posted).
"To us, there is no greater investment than saving lives through science," said Robert Fox in a statement. He is chair of the Wistar building committee, a former board chairman, and a trustee since 1974. Wistar focuses on cancer research and vaccine development. Penny Fox, his wife, chaired last year's Wistar Gala, which raised more than $150,000 for the campaign. The Wistars also endow a professorship now held by Wistar Cancer Center boss Dr. Dario Altieri, and the Robert A. Fox Structural Biology Center.
Wistar president Dr. Russel E. Kaufman said Fox money has helped build "an entirely new Wistar" and advance its public-health work.
