The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has received a $2.7 million gift from the estate of Eleanor Karam to support the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging.
Karam died in 2019 due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
“Ms. Eleanor was a true visionary with a huge heart,” Dr. Jeanne Wei, director of the institute and Karam’s personal doctor, said in a news release. “Her love of seniors will help our clinicians better understand the aging process and delay or reverse age-associated memory loss and Alzheimer’s dementia. UAMS and all mature Arkansans are most fortunate indeed. We are deeply grateful to her and her siblings John and Jean for their generosity.”
Karam became familiar with UAMS and the institute when she and her husband sought care closer to home. They received all their routine care at UAMS, and relied on UAMS when Jimmy Karam became seriously ill. He died in 2000.
When Karam was later diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she also received care at the institute.
Karam was a member of the Chancellor’s Circle, Society of the Double Helix and the 1879 Society. She supported the new hospital for UAMS during its construction in 2008 and later named a patient room in her late husband’s memory.