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Gordon Gund, co-founder and chairman of The Foundation Fighting Blindness, and CEO of Gund Investment Corporation, accepted Research!America's award for Exceptional Contributions as a Volunteer Advocate for Medical and Health Research from The Honorable John Edward Porter (R), Research!America board chair. The award recognizes Gordon's substantial roles as a volunteer leader in advancing research to deliver treatments, preventions and cures for retinal degenerative diseases.
"Gordon Gund has been an unwavering supporter of medical research for more than 30 years, approaching research as an investment in a healthier future for us all and encouraging others to do likewise," said Mary Woolley, president of Research!America. "He is a true champion for research, and Research!America is pleased to honor him as a volunteer advocate."
Research!America is the nation's largest not-for-profit public education and advocacy alliance working to make medical and health research-including research to prevent disease, disability and injury and to promote health-a much higher national priority. The 2006 Advocacy Awards represent Research!America's 10th year of recognizing the accomplishments of leading advocates for medical and health research. For more information, visit www.researchamerica.org. |
Gordon was diagnosed as a young adult with retinitis pigmentosa, which has left him blind since 1970.Gordon has gone on to become a highly successful investor, owner of four professional sports teams and prominent philanthropist.
Other 2006 Research!America Advocacy Award winners are former First Lady Nancy Reagan; Sam Donaldson of ABC News; U.S. Reps. Michael Castle (Del.) and Diana DeGette (Col.); Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research and Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing and Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing; and the Center for the Advancement of Health.