France-Merrick Gift Largest of New "Initiative"

     Two Baltimore foundations have pledged $4 million to The
Johns Hopkins Institutions, the largest commitment to the
university and health system since October's public launch of
their $900 million campaign.
     The gift, the largest ever by The Jacob and Annita France
Foundation and The Robert G. and Anne M. Merrick Foundation,
includes $3 million to support construction of a new building for
the university's School of Nursing and $1 million for Johns
Hopkins Hospital's new Cancer Center, now under construction at
Broadway and Orleans streets in Baltimore.
     "Our foundations have been involved in preserving or
constructing important buildings, but not just for the sake of
bricks and mortar," said Anne M. Pinkard, president of the
foundations. "We are interested in buildings that reach out to
people, that serve the community and that, in this case, help to
build bridges between Hopkins and the community.
     "These projects will fill those roles, and we are pleased to
be associated with them through the largest commitment our
foundations have ever made," Pinkard said.  
     The France-Merrick gift brings the total of commitments to
the Johns Hopkins Initiative to $311 million, more than one-third
of the institutions' overall goal for a campaign scheduled to
continue until 2000. Commitments for endowment and capital
purposes--the primary focus of the campaign--stand at $225
million, 43 percent of the target of $525 million.
     The planned School of Nursing building will consolidate the
school's teaching, research and administrative activities, now
spread among five locations in and around the Hopkins East
Baltimore and Bayview campuses. The $14 million building on Wolfe
Street in East Baltimore will house--among other activities--the
school's new Center for Underserved Communities and other
programs to provide service to the East Baltimore community or to
educate nurses for work in inner cities and isolated rural areas.
     "This generous gift assures the construction of a permanent
home for the School of Nursing," said Sue Donaldson, the
univer-sity's dean of nursing. "We are inspired by it to be more
creative in achieving our goals and look forward to expanding the
school's programs in the new building."
     The new Cancer Center, slated for completion in 1997, will
allow Hopkins to serve as many as 15 percent more cancer patients
each year, more conveniently, more comprehensively, and with
state-of-the-art technology. The added space also will enhance
Hopkins cancer screening, education and community outreach
programs in Maryland, which suffers from one of the nation's
highest cancer death rates, and in East Baltimore, one of the
worst affected areas of the city.
     "The new center will have the latest in technological
advances and will be designed to provide a warm and humane
environment in which to deliver outstanding care to patients from
this region and from around the country and the world," said
Martin D. Abeloff, director of the current Hopkins Oncology
Center.
     The Cancer Center is expected to cost $97 million. The state
of Maryland has committed $30.5 million in recognition of the
center's potential importance in addressing the state's cancer
problem. Francis X. Knott, a trustee of The Johns Hopkins
Hospital and Health System, is leading an effort to secure the
support of private donors.