The roughly $9 million estate of a Tucson couple will go to the Carondelet Health Network and the University of Arizona with a purpose of improving local health care.
The Carondelet Health Network today is expected to announce its $4.5 million gift from Sam and Winifred "Quiggy" Witt - the single largest private gift in recent Carondelet history.
Retired lawyer and Witt family friend Gerald Hirsch said the Witts specified the Carondelet money go toward operating hospice and palliative care. The Carondelet Health Network includes four Southern Arizona hospitals. Its hospice program has a daily census averaging 160 patients, most of them getting home care, officials said.
The other $4.5 million will go to the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Hirsch said.
The Witts did not have any children and while they left some money to relatives, most of it is going to Carondelet and the UA, Hirsch said.
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Sam Witt was a masonry contractor and builder who served as president of both the Southern Arizona Home Builders and Arizona Home Builders associations and participated in the construction of thousands of local homes, including nearly all of San Manuel and numerous Tucson subdivisions, a 1958 Arizona Daily Star article says. Witt came to Tucson during the 1940s, moving here from Illinois after suffering from tuberculosis, according to Daily Star archives.
Witt also was a founder and original board member of Catalina Savings and Loan Association and was a member of the board of trustees for the Carondelet St. Joseph's Hospital Foundation. He died of a heart attack in 1987, at the age of 70.
His wife also came to Tucson during the 1940s after she was discharged from the U.S. Army. She'd been a first lieutenant in charge of food services during World War II, Hirsch said. She died in September at the age of 95.
"This will allow us to better educate the community about the benefits of hospice, as well as provide coverage to patients who don't have insurance," said Lupe Trieste, executive director of Carondelet Hospice & Palliative Care, which has 11 inpatient beds plus an extensive home-care program that serves patients of all ages, including children. "It's an extremely generous gift."
The donation also serves as a model for the community, said Dick Imwalle, chief executive officer of the Carondelet Foundation.
"Gifts like these can be almost transformational in nature and allow us to strive for excellence and achievement in a number of fields where we might be limited," he said.
The half of the money going to the UA College of Medicine will go toward cancer research, including at least one endowed chair that will be named for the Witts, said Sarah Hiteman, deputy dean and chief of staff for the UA College of Medicine.
Hiteman said officials may create additional endowed chairs with the Witt donation in other areas of health research based on community need and priorities. Some of the money will also be used to fund need-based scholarships for medical students, she said.
Contact Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or sinnes@azstarnet.com
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