Herbert Kean, M.D., Family Professorship Established at The Wistar Institute

(PHILADELPHIA - April 16, 2002) - The Wistar Institute today announced the establishment of the Herbert Kean, M.D., Family Professorship. An Institute-hosted evening reception and dinner will honor Dr. Kean for his philanthropic vision and contributions toward the continuing vitality of Wistar research.

The newly endowed chair, made possible by a generous gift from Dr. Kean, a Philadelphia surgeon, businessman, and philanthropist, will enable Wistar to recruit an unusually talented new researcher to the Institute's faculty or, alternatively, to recognize the accomplishments of a distinguished member of its current scientific staff. The professorship will provide the researcher selected with the resources necessary to pursue freely the types of bold, high-risk ideas that can lead to major advances in medicine. An international search for the first holder of the professorship will begin later this year.

"The Kean Family Professorship will allow The Wistar Institute to recruit or retain an outstanding investigator who will have the unrestricted flexibility to pursue the novel scientific ideas that he or she believes will prove most promising in the fight against disease," says Clayton A. Buck, Ph.D., professor and acting director & CEO of The Wistar Institute. "We are most grateful to Dr. Kean for his philanthropic leadership in support of Wistar's basic science mission."

"In establishing the Kean Family Professorship, my aim is to make it easier for a talented scientist to come into the laboratory each day and work in an unencumbered way," says Dr. Kean. "I want that researcher to be free to think big and concentrate on making the kinds of significant discoveries that will be needed to end cancer and other diseases."

A life-long Philadelphia resident, Dr. Kean graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1952. He attended Hahnemann Medical School and was awarded his M.D. in 1956. He served his internship at Hahnemann Hospital in 1956-57 and his residency at Jefferson Hospital from 1957 to 1960. From 1960 until his retirement in 1999, Dr. Kean was in private practice as an ear, nose, and throat clinician and surgeon, and he was board certified in otolaryngology and facial plastic and reconstructive surgery. At the time of his retirement, he was an attending physician at Thomas Jefferson Hospital and a clinical professor in otolaryngology at Thomas Jefferson Medical College. Among many others, his professional society memberships included the Philadelphia County Medical Society, the American College of Surgeons, and the American Board of Otolaryngology.

Today, he is chairman of the public health committee of the Philadelphia County Medical Society, working to extend health-care access to underserved Philadelphia residents. He is a board member of Singing City, a Philadelphia-based choral ensemble. Dr. Kean is also a member of the board of Entercom Communications Corp., a company established by his friend Joseph M. Field, chairman and CEO of Entercom.

The Herbert Kean, M.D., Family Professorship honors the members of Dr. Kean's family, among whom are his wife, the Honorable Joyce Kean, his daughter Marjorie, and his son Jon. The professorship also recognizes Dr. Kean's first wife, Jeannette, who died of breast cancer in 1989. When Jeannette's death was imminent, Dr. Kean arranged to fund a laboratory in her honor at the Institute, beginning a pattern of giving to Wistar that has continued to the present with the establishment of the Kean Family Professorship.

The Wistar Institute is an independent nonprofit biomedical research institution dedicated to discovering the causes and cures for major diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases. Founded in 1892 as the first institution of its kind in the nation, The Wistar Institute today is a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center - one of only eight focused on basic research. Discoveries at Wistar have led to the development of vaccines for such diseases as rabies and rubella, the identification of genes associated with breast, lung, and prostate cancer, and the development of monoclonal antibodies and other significant research technologies and tools.

News releases from The Wistar Institute are available to reporters by direct e-mail or fax upon request. They are also posted electronically to Wistar's home page (http://www.wistar.org), to EurekAlert! (http://www.eurekalert.org), an Internet resource sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and to the public interest newswire AScribe (http://www.ascribe.org).

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