Texas Medical Center Deserves Praise

To the Editor:

I have been a fund raiser and donor for 57 years.

I have served on the board of the United Way of America and the national advisory board of the Salvation Army, was chairman of the Board of Trustees at Southern Methodist University, and am one of the 10 trustees of the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries.

I have been chosen as philanthropist of the year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals as well as outstanding trustee in the nation by the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities.

I know something about fund raising. Believe me, if any of the organizations I have served on found that they could raise $1-million at a cost of 3 percent, they would be dancing in the street. If they found they could raise $2-billion at a cost of 3 percent, every street in the city would be filled — and they would still be dancing.

What Kern Wildenthal has done at UT Southwestern Medical Center has been incredible. To have done all this, and also taken a young medical school and in 20 years as president built it into one of the best in the nation, and even the world, is a stunning accomplishment.

With four active Nobel laureates on the faculty (more than any other medical school in the world); 17 members of the National Academy of Sciences (one of the highest honors attainable by American scientists); 21 members of the Institute of Medicine (a component of the National Academy of Sciences); and more than 3,500 research projects with $350-million in annual funding, UT Southwestern almost approaches the realm of fantasy.

I find it appalling that a journal as respected as yours would print the scurrilous insinuations of Pablo Eisenberg (“A Texas Scandal Raises Questions About Nonprofit Hospitals,” April 17). Dr. Wildenthal is one of the nation’s great university administrators and a man of great personal integrity. He should not have his reputation ground up by irresponsible reporting.

Ruth Sharp Altshuler
Dallas