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Dean makes gift to college to support scholarship, leadership initiatives The dean of MUSC’s College of Medicine has made a planned gift to the college that will fully endow one of its scholarship funds and significantly increase the discretionary resources available to his successors.   The gift made by Joseph (Jerry) G. Reves, M.D., College of Medicine, Class of 1969, and his wife, Jenny, College of Health Professions, Class of 1968, will support the Dr. John Cathcart Endowed Scholarship Fund, in memory of Jenny's father, Dr. John W. Cathcart II. The scholarship fund was established in 2002 in memory of the late physician by the couple and Cathcart’s widow, Margaret C. Cathcart.   Cathcart was a 1942 graduate of the College of Medicine. Immediately after his internship, he joined the Army and was sent to Mindanao in the Philippines during World War II where he was killed in action. Remembered by his family as a caring and dedicated physician, the Reves family thought it fitting to remember him while supporting the college.   “We feel like we received a great education here, and we want to support our alma mater,” Jenny  Reves said. “We also want to honor the life of my father at the same time, so this scholarship in his memory seems a fitting tribute.”   MUSC President Ray Greenberg, M.D., Ph.D., described the Reves’ gift as an extraordinary demonstration of loyalty and “leadership by example.”   “As we prepare to launch the university’s first capital campaign in 20 years, we will depend heavily on this kind of support from our alumni and faculty alike,” said Greenberg. “In that regard, I am confident that Jerry’s and Jenny’s gift will help set the pace for a successful campaign. We are extremely grateful for their confidence and generosity.”   The four-year merit-based scholarship is awarded to an entering medical student with strong scholastic ability and was first awarded in 2002. This most recent gift from the Reves' will help fully endow the fund, so that the scholarship will continue forever.   “Probably one of the greatest problems for medical students today is that the average student is graduating with a debt of about $130,000 or more,” Dean Reves said. “Not to mention that when medical graduates take their first job as a resident, they’re starting out making around $30,000 a year. So there is a huge need for assistance.”   The couple’s gift will also support the college and its students by adding to its Dean’s Fund, an unrestricted fund established by the dean in 2001 that gives the dean the ability to financially support his or her priority initiatives.   “The Dean’s Fund is important because it will allow future deans to put the money to good use for the college and its students, as only a dean can,” Dean Reves said. “This fund will enable my successors to help individual students in need and can also be used for special projects that students take on collectively, like the CARES clinic, for example. Students volunteer their time to offer free medical services to the community, but often times they need medicine for patients. The Dean’s Fund would give the dean the ability to financially support student projects like this.”   The Reves also feel that it is their duty, as alumni of the Medical University’s colleges, to give back to their alma mater because of the investment that was made in them as students.   “I firmly believe that every alumnus or alumna has the responsibility to give back to the institution that gave so much to them,” the dean said. “You can’t measure the value of an education. The things we learn in the College of Medicine are life long lessons and give us the opportunity to practice medicine for the rest of our lives. Since medical schools provide individuals so much in the way of knowledge and experience, it is only responsible to give something back. I would like to see all of our alumni do something, just as we are doing.”     Friday, Nov. 16, 2007 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.