The Brewers directed $1 million of their
gift to a professorship designated for the chair of the department of pediatrics. The
remaining $1.4 million will form an endowment for the advancement of children's research
and health-care programs.Marcus Hudson, a Chapel Hill
attorney, friend of the Brewers and executor of their estate, said the couple, which had
no children, chose to benefit children in this way.
"Children's research and health care are chronically
underfunded in this country," Houpt said. "This gift will go an enormous way in
furthering our children's programs."
"This is an important milestone for the department of
pediatrics because it is the first endowed chair in pediatrics," Williams said.
"This generous gift will allow us to further our mission of applying new scientific
knowledge to advance the health care of children in North Carolina."
Charles Everett Brewer was a native of Pennsylvania. An accountant
with a lumber company, he retired to Chapel Hill in 1956 with his wife, the former
Katherine Margaret Koch, also a Pennsylvania native. After moving to Chapel Hill, Mrs.
Brewer became active in the hospital women's auxiliary. Mr. Brewer died in 1988, followed
by Mrs. Brewer in 1998.
The endowments for the Charles Everett and Katherine M. Brewer
Professorship in Pediatrics and the Charles Everett and Katherine M. Brewer Children's
Fund will be held by the Medical Foundation of North Carolina.
by Lynn Wooten '89
