Mo. couple gives $25M to Genome Institute

Longtime philanthropists and civic leaders Elizabeth and James McDonnell have pledged $25 million to endow The Genome Institute. With the gift, the institute will be named The Elizabeth H. and James S. McDonnell III Genome Institute- courtesy photo

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A St. Louis couple has donated $25 million to the Washington University School of Medicine’s Genome Institute that will help pay for its research on cancer treatment and prevention.
Genome Institute director Rick Wilson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the donation by James S. McDonnell III and his wife, Elizabeth Hall McDonnell, is the institute’s first big private donation.

James McDonnell, 78, served as a director of the family-owned McDonnell Douglas Corp. until its 1997 merger with Boeing Co. He and his family also helped the medical center build a pediatric disease research center in honor of their 2-year-old daughter, Peggy, who died of cancer in 1972.

Wilson said the contribution will help researchers study and sift through large amounts of genetic data. It’s a task, he said, that’s needed to help make discoveries about the illness.