Why a Small Family Foundation is Giving Big for Neurodegenerative Disorders

A new funder is stepping in to fill a regional gap in care for people with neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s and dementia.

Real estate developer Lawrence J. Goldrich and his wife, Janice, recently gave $15 million to Norfolk-based Eastern Virginia Medical School to establish an institute for neurodegenerative disorders. The Lawrence J. Goldrich Institute for Integrated NeuroHealth will provide comprehensive, multidisciplinary treatment and palliative care for patients and support for their families; it will also furnish learning opportunities for students, boost access to drug therapies and clinical trials and contribute to research. The donation is the largest in EVMS history.

The L and J Goldrich Foundation is actually not new at all: Lawrence and Janice Goldrich created it in 1958 with earnings from their thriving real estate development business based in Virginia Beach. The foundation has contributed to a variety of institutions and causes over the years, including the Michael J. Fox Foundation, which is dedicated to Parkinson’s research.

But this is the foundation’s largest gift to date, and its roots are personal: Lawrence Goldrich has Parkinson’s disease. After his diagnosis, Goldrich and his family found that resources for patients with neurological disorders were scarce in their corner of Virginia. “Larry’s personal struggle with Parkinson’s disease forced us to realize that the facilities available for treatment and education were limited, adding to the frustration of simply living with the disease,” the couple said when the gift was announced. “We hope our gift will improve the quality of life for patients, caregivers and their families.”

The Goldrichs’ donation is a reminder that big giving for medical research is nearly always entwined with deeply human backstories about disease and suffering—ordeals that can reveal the limits of modern medicine and spur donors to action.

Rising Numbers, Increasing Need

It’s a sad reality that as the population ages worldwide, rates of neurological disorders have increased—and are continuing to rise. The numbers are eye-popping: The World Health Organization estimates that 50 million people around the world are living with dementia, a number it expects to triple by 2050. This year in the U.S. alone, one in 10 people over 64 had Alzheimer’s dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The Parkinson’s Foundation calculates that close to 1 million Americans are living with Parkinson’s—a number that is likely to double by 2030.

These numbers represent not only heartbreak for patients and their families, they take a stunning economic toll, as well. One 2017 study, for example, estimated the annual economic burden of Parkinson’s disease to be $51.9 billion.

Philanthropy is playing an important role in the fight against neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson’s, as IP has reported previously. The Michael J. Fox Foundation is one of the most established such funders, of course. And Google co-founder and billionaire Sergey Brin, whose mother and great aunt had the disease, and who himself has a gene that puts him at risk, has donated millions to MJFF and recently launched a new Parkinson’s research initiative. Philanthropists have been key players in the progress of Alzheimer’s research, as well.

Rising national and global rates of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s also point to the growing need for facilities like the Goldrich Institute at EVMS, which will provide the specialty care and support that patients with neurodegenerative diseases and their families badly need.

Acting Locally

When the Goldrich Institute for Integrated NeuroHealth is up and running, it will be the only such facility in the area known as Hampton Roads, a sprawling metropolitan region that comprises parts of both Southeastern Virginia and Northeastern North Carolina. In fact, according to Connie McKenzie, senior associate vice president for the EVMS Office of Development, it will be the only institute of its kind in Virginia, and will fill a care gap spanning the area between Johns Hopkins to the north and the North Carolina Research Triangle to the south.

EVMS prides itself on its community orientation, McKenzie explained. “We are committed to addressing the needs in our community, including discrepancies in health outcomes, and that is how we focus our efforts,” she said. “For example, African American men in Hampton Roads have high rates of prostate cancer. Breast cancer rates in this community are the fourth highest in the nation. So these are areas where we are committed to focus our clinical care and our research.” EVMS Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology was already serving area seniors, and the new institute, specializing in neurodegenerative disorders, will allow it to do even more.

Whether it’s in the clinic or the research lab, resources for these disorders are critical as they become, increasingly, conditions that few people anywhere can hope to sidestep. As McKenzie put it, “It is hard to find anyone whose family has not been impacted by Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s or dementia.”