Department News

Frese Estate Gift Benefits Four Areas of Medicine

By Carla Beecher-Moehn
Courtesy of UIC Medicine magazine

The generosity of the late Carl and Billie (Higgins) Frese will benefit patients suffering from cancer, macular degeneration, narcolepsy and diabetes. Through their estate, the Carl H. and Billie M. Frese Medical Research Endowment has bestowed gifts totaling more than $1 million to four areas of medical research in the College of Medicine.

The Cancer Center will use its portion of the funds to conduct cancer research, the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences will use the funds to study macular degeneration, the department of neurology will use its new financial support to conduct narcolepsy research, and the department of surgery’s section on transplantation will use the funds to support transplantation procedures with special consideration for those with type I diabetes.

The late Carl Frese commented several years ago in UIC Medicine magazine that he was very impressed with the new Cancer Center, and also with the people in ophthalmology and the Center for Narcolepsy Research. “It’s hard to find someplace that you can have a degree of confidence in, such as the University of Illinois medical school,” he said.

His late wife, Billie, who received a BS in education from UIUC in 1940, suffered from both cancer and narcolepsy for many years before she died in 1996. And their son, David, suffered from juvenile diabetes, a disease that took his life when he was a young adult. Had transplant surgery been a treatment option for David at the time, he might have survived. And Frese, his father and brother all suffered from macular degeneration.

No cure exists for any of these conditions, which is why Frese decided to designate his gift for research. New innovations in transplant surgery at the University of Illinois Medical Center, where patients with juvenile diabetes are treated, inspired Frese to establish a gift provision in his will for this research.

Frese, a 1939 commerce alumnus from UIUC, made his first gift of $100,000 to the college in 1996 with a charitable gift annuity. At the time he said, “Many of the other organizations I could have supported seemed to be somewhat bureaucratic in the administration of private support. Setting up my own named endowment fund for specified research is extremely gratifying and a very efficient use of my support.”