Saunders previously gave more than $1 million to the medical center, largely to support research in the Neuromuscular Disease Center. Those funds have [image-nocss] been instrumental in helping University neurologists make several promising discoveries about myotonic muscular dystrophy, the most common type of muscular dystrophy affecting adults.
That gift also enabled medical center physicians and scientists to attract an additional $22 million in research funding--creating jobs, boosting the Neuromuscular Disease Center's reputation internationally, and perhaps someday making possible a new treatment for a devastating disease.
"The University of Rochester Medical Center is not just a great hospital," said Saunders. "It's a major academic medical center with a huge research component, seeking cures for disease, attracting dollars far beyond Rochester and bringing those funds to Rochester, building an economic base, attracting new ideas and businesses, and providing jobs for many people. Those are the types of activities I like to support."
Saunders noted that his family has long had ties with the medical center. More than two decades ago, one of Saunders' children was critically ill and was treated in the intensive care unit by Richard Moxley, M.D., a neurologist and director of the Neuromuscular Disease Center. A friendship between Moxley and the Saunders family developed that remains to this day.
The bulk of the gift will go toward supporting outstanding clinical care and research in neuromuscular disease. The donation is designed to create two endowed professorships that will support outstanding clinicians and researchers. The funds will also create an endowed fellowship in neuromuscular disease, designed to help the university attract the nation's best developing neuromuscular researchers.
Saunders is dedicating the gift to veterans of the U.S. armed forces. "I am so proud of the men and women who serve our country to preserve our freedom," he said. "They should never be forgotten."
Saunders began his entrepreneurial career in 1958 with his father's gas station, and built it into TravelCenters of America, which is now the nation's largest chain of travel centers. He ventured into liquid-fuels distribution and convenience stores. In 1979, he purchased W.W. Griffith Oil Corp. and began the Sugar Creek Corp. chain of retail gas and c-stores. In 1998, Saunders sold Griffith Oil to Rochester Gas & Electric Corp.'s Energetix subsidiary and two years later he sold the 105-store Sugar Creek chain to Tops Markets Inc.
And he has diversified his interests to auto rental, recreation and tourism, packaged foods, property management and banking.
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