Cancer research at West Virginia University’s Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center will receive a boost from a significant gift from Frederick and Joan Stamp of Wheeling.

The donation provides additional support to a cancer research endowment established by the Stamps in 2008, and is expected to qualify for matching funds from the state Research Trust Fund. The Stamps requested that the amount of the gift not be disclosed.

The endowment provides funds to specifically support advances in biological, biotechnological, and biomedical sciences.

“The Cancer Center is enormously grateful for the continued generosity of Joan and Judge Stamp,” said Scot Remick, M.D., director of the WVU Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center. “Their most recent gift, along with the match through the West Virginia Research Trust Fund, will enhance the endowment for our Clinical Trials Research Unit. This support will enable our center to provide access to state-of-the-art cancer therapies through innovative and life saving clinical trials.”

The Stamps have been dedicated supporters of the state and WVU for many years.

Judge Stamp has been a U.S. District Court judge serving the Northern District of West Virginia since 1990. His outreach work has taken him beyond the bench to serve in the state Legislature and as a past president of the former state Board of Regents. He has served on the WVU College of Law Visiting Committee. Judge Stamp holds degrees from Washington & Lee University and the University of Richmond Law School.

Mrs. Stamp, who owns a jewelry design business, is a 1973 graduate of WVU, earning her degree in marketing. She currently serves on the WVU Foundation Board of Directors, and is a member of several corporate and charitable boards, as well as a lifetime member of the WVU Alumni Association. She is a former member of the Rosenbaum Family House Board of Advisors, and twice chaired the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Gala. Mrs. Stamp’s father, the late Louis Corson, is still revered for writing the WVU Alma Mater.

The Stamps are members of the Woodburn Circle Society, the WVU Foundation’s highest level of donor recognition. Last year, the couple was honored as Most Loyal West Virginians during WVU’s Mountaineer Week.

In 2008, the state created the Research Trust Fund with an initial appropriation of $50 million ($35 million for WVU, $15 million for Marshall) to leverage public and private investments that will transform West Virginia’s economy. WVU is able to tap into the fund to double private gifts that support expansions to research faculty and infrastructure in key areas linked to economic development, health care and job growth. To date, private gifts and pledges approved for RTF match total $8.5 million.

The gift was made through the WVU Foundation, the private non-profit corporation that generates, receives and administers private gifts for the benefit of WVU.

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CONTACT: Bill Nevin, WVU Foundation
304-284-4056; WNevin@wvuf.org

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