In October 2000, Donald Goodman, a retired dentist, returned to his Pepper Pike home after his morning exercise and abruptly collapsed on the floor. After being rushed to University Hospitals of Cleveland, he was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, a rare and particularly aggressive form of cancer. Instead of chemotherapy, doctors at UH’s Ireland Cancer Center decided to treat Dr. Goodman with Mylotarg, a drug that had received Federal Drug Administration approval only five months prior. After 30 days of grueling treatment, during which time he received 19 transfusions of whole blood, Donald Goodman was declared cancer free.

While hospitalized, Dr. Goodman had been prohibited from receiving visitors, leaving him with time for reflection. One thing he naturally found himself thinking about was his estate plan. The Goodmans had already planned a gift to the community through the Cleveland Foundation. Indeed, after Dr. Goodman recovered, he and his wife sought an appointment with the foundation’s new CEO, Ronald B. Richard.

Richard’s calendar was booked for a solid month, but he offered to meet with the “dentist from Beachwood” (as Donald had modestly identified himself) after work or on a weekend. Although unwilling to inconvenience the foundation’s CEO, Goodman was so impressed by Richard’s courtesy that he drew up the couple’s bequests to the foundation in advance of his subsequently scheduled workday meeting with Richard. In 2004, the Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Fund was established at the foundation.

As a result of Dr. Goodman’s hospitalization, the couple knew exactly how they wanted the fund’s income to be used. It was designated for the advancement of medical research and education at a number of favored institutions, including UH, the Ireland Cancer Center (now the Seidman Cancer Center), the Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Medicine and the CWRU School of Dental Medicine, of which Dr. Goodman was a graduate. The support of medical programming on public broadcast stations in northeastern Ohio was also stipulated as an objective.

The bequest to the fund from the estate of Dr. Goodman, who died in 2007, totaled more than $9 million. Ruth Weber Goodman, the daughter of the founder of Cleveland’s Triplex Screw Corporation and Dr. Goodman’s second wife, died in 2008. Her bequests brought the total value of the fund to nearly $70 million, making the Goodmans’ gift the largest in the foundation’s history to date.