$5M Donation for UAB Radiation Oncology Center
UAB gets $5 million gift for radiation cancer center
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
ANNA VELASCO
News staff writer
A Mountain Brook businessman is giving $5 million to UAB for its planned $28.5 million radiation cancer treatment center, the largest single gift from a living person in the school's history, university officials announced Tuesday.
W. Cobb "Chip" Hazelrig is giving the money to honor his parents, J. William and Virginia Hazelrig, and their longtime friends, Drs. Paul and Merle Salter. The building will be named the Hazelrig-Salter Radiation Oncology Facility at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The donation plus $4 million in other gifts puts the University of Alabama at Birmingham more than halfway toward its fund-raising goal of $15 million for the center, which will replace the 30-year-old Lurleen B. Wallace Tumor Institute. The fund-raising effort was announced in November.
"This gift will serve as the cornerstone of continued efforts to fund a comfortable, attractive and state-of-the-art treatment facility," Dr. James A. Bonner, chairman of the UAB Department of Radiation Oncology, said in a written statement.
Hazelrig's connection to cancer is personal. Both of his grandmothers died of the disease. His mother has been in remission from cancer for five years, and his father was recently diagnosed with bladder cancer, Hazelrig said.
Also, Merle Salter chaired the UAB Department of Radiation Oncology from 1986 until 1995, when she retired.
Hazelrig, 50, also has had many friends battle cancer. "It really touches a lot of people," he said.
Hazelrig started his investment business, Hazelrig Companies, 23 years ago. His investments span the real estate, oil and gas and steel industries.
"I've been very fortunate in my business opportunities," he said.
Construction on the Hazelrig-Salter Radiation Oncology Facility will start by spring and is expected to be complete in 2007. The two-story, 50,000-square-foot building will double current space for radiation oncology. The treatment vaults will be much bigger, to house the massive equipment used today and expected in the future.
UAB's patient volume has grown greatly in recent years, to more than 30,000 visits annually. The center will have bigger and better waiting areas, with a special area for children. A space next to the building, to be called the Park of Hope, will offer a pleasant area for patients, relatives and the public.
The radiation oncology center will be on the site of the former Captain D's on 18th Street South at Sixth Avenue South. The current building will be dedicated solely to research.
"We are delighted that the building will bear the names of these individuals who have meant so much to this community and to UAB," UAB President Carol Z. Garrison said in a written statement.
E-mail: avelasco@bhamnews.com
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$5M Donation for UAB Radiation Oncology Center
