Testamentary Gifts

Edna Romanell bestowed two testamentary gifts with a combined value of nearly $1.5 million to the University at Buffalo.

With the two gifts made through revocable trust expectancies, Mrs. Romanell has continued the legacy begun by her late husband, Patrick Romanell, a philosopher and author of several books on critical naturalism.

The first bequest of $600,000 will provide for continuing support of the Romanell Lecture on Medical Ethics and Philosophy, a series she and her husband established in 1997 with $50,000 in gifts.

Her second bequest of nearly $900,000 will establish the Edna and Patrick Romanell Professorship in the Department of Philosophy, College of Arts and Sciences.

Peter Hare, former chairman of the philosophy department, and Tim Madigan, Ph.D. 199 & M.A. 1998, then a philosophy graduate student, were friends of Romanell, whom Madigan calls "one of the first philosophers to work in medical ethics."

A former medical social worker, Mrs. Romanell says that she and her husband shared the same thoughts on giving. "If we can afford it, let someone else benefit, too," she says. "You only live so long, and our philosophy was always to let somebody else profit, as well."

In 1997, Hare invited Romanell to UB to give a lecture on medical ethics. Madigan, now editorial director at the University of Rochester Press, says Romanell later established a lecture series at UB because "he preferred lectureships as a way to get fresh, original ideas across."

Patrick Romanell died of cancer in February 2002, but his generosity continues to benefit the university. The Romanell gifts are part of The Campaign for UB: Generation to Generation, which is closing in on its $250 million goal.