Honoring a renowned businessman and dedicated philanthropist

Leonard Abramson was never one to wait for things to happen. He turned vision into reality, based on a belief that positive change was always possible, especially if he was in the driver’s seat. This started quite literally with his own success story: He drove a taxi to pay his way through pharmacy school, an effort to move beyond his humble beginnings.

Abramson was always looking for ways to accelerate progress, both in his own career as a health care pioneer, and in his tireless efforts with his beloved late wife Madlyn to transform cancer research and care. Their efforts were recognized with the naming of the Abramson Cancer Center and they donated to lift up a host of other areas from nursing to acute care and more.

“Leonard’s legacy is vast, but for us at Penn Medicine, his name will always be synonymous with hope,” said a joint statement signed by Jonathan A. Epstein, MD, dean of the Perelman School of Medicine; Kevin B. Mahoney, CEO of the University of Pennsylvania Health System; and Robert H. Vonderheide, MD, DPhil, director of the Abramson Cancer Center. “[For example] At the Abramson Cancer Center, patients and families facing one of life’s most difficult diagnoses find extraordinary care, leading-edge science, and a team committed to advancing a future free from cancer. Leonard and Madlyn’s legacy lives on in that work every day—in the patients we care for, the discoveries we pursue, and the hope made possible through their generosity.”

Leonard learned early on that success comes from initiative, not circumstance. Born in 1932 in the Strawberry Mansion section of Philadelphia, he drove a cab to pay for his pharmacy degree from University of the Sciences before earning a master’s in public administration from Pennsylvania State University. He told Forbes magazine in a 1991 interview, “Not too many started out with less than I did.”

He started work as a pharmacist, branching out into medical equipment sales before eventually realizing he wanted to tackle larger systemic problems. Leonard recognized that Medicare would radically increase health care spending and predicted the growing need for prepaid health care plans and managed care.

In 1975 he launched one of the first health management organizations, U.S. Healthcare. Long before preventive care became a national priority, Leonard was pushing U.S. Healthcare to invest in programs such as childhood vaccinations. He believed health care should be both effective and accountable, and he consistently challenged practices that prioritized profit or convenience over patient well-being. He sold the company to Aetna in 1996 and was later named one of the Great American Business Leaders of the 20th Century by Harvard University.

But his business acumen would never outshine his philanthropy.

When vision meets compassion

After Madlyn’s experience as a breast cancer patient, the Abramsons saw research as the key to unlocking breakthroughs.

“Having been in the pharmaceutical industry, I’m aware of how vital research is to saving lives,” he said in a 2021 donor profile for the Jupiter Medical Center Foundation in Florida.

Madlyn’s cancer treatment connected the Abramsons to Penn’s cancer center and to John Glick, MD, who treated her. (Glick would become the center’s longest-serving director and the Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Professor of Clinical Oncology.) Madlyn not only survived her disease but became, for decades until her passing in 2020, an important guide for the Abramson Cancer Center. She and Leonard wanted to give patients more options and more hope. In the late 1990s, the Abramsons worked with Glick and crafted their vision to create an extraordinary cancer center at Penn Medicine: what would begin with the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute.

“Leonard and Madlyn’s gift was not for bricks and mortar, but for the recruitment of the best and brightest scientists, clinicians, social workers, psychiatrists, and nutritionists. They wanted us to take the cancer center from excellence to eminence,” Glick said in an interview before his 2021 retirement.

This commitment to research yielded unprecedented impact: Among the recruits made possible by the Abramsons’ gift was Carl H. June, MD, the immunotherapy pioneer responsible for the development of the first CAR T cell therapy.

The Abramsons also funded the Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Professorship in Clinical Oncology, the Abramson Family Professorship in Sarcoma Care Excellence, the Abramson Family Professorship in Orthopaedic Surgery, and the Abramson Family Professorship in Anesthesiology. The Abramsons’ lifetime giving to Penn totaled more than $165 million—not including the funds raised through Philly Fights Cancer, an annual event benefiting the cancer center.

“I’d like to be remembered as a pioneer in health management organizations and for helping finance phenomenal medical cures,” Abramson said in the 2021 Jupiter Medical Center Foundation profile.

Their philanthropy extended far beyond Penn Medicine. At Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), they supported the Leonard and Madlyn Abramson Pediatric Research Center and a pediatric emergency department at CHOP’s hospital in King of Prussia. Leonard served on CHOP’s board for 15 years. The Abramsons also supported the Temple University dental school; Jupiter Medical Center in Florida; the Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Center for Jewish Life senior living center in North Wales, PA; Abramson Senior Care in Jenkintown, PA; the Abramson Senior Care Foundation; and other groups. At Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where Leonard served on the board for 14 years, they endowed a professorship in neurodegenerative diseases.

An inspiring legacy

Leonard repeatedly identified moments when ideas, talent, and institutions were on the verge of transformation and gave them the backing they needed to soar ever higher. For example, in 2019 Madlyn and Leonard gave an $11 million gift supporting Penn’s Anesthesiology, Orthopaedics, Nursing, and Emergency Medicine departments, and their support was critical for launching one of the first clinical trials evaluating the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Leonard’s legacy endures through the patients receiving innovative therapies, the scientists making life-changing discoveries, the institutions strengthened by his leadership, and the generations of physicians and researchers supported through endowed programs and professorships.

“We are indebted to Len for his vision, for his high standards he held us to, and for his generosity on so many levels, big and small,” Vonderheide wrote in an announcement and remembrance sent to the Abramson Cancer Center community. “As a community, we again dedicate ourselves to the inspirational goals Len outlined.”

Leonard, 93, was predeceased by his wife Madlyn in 2020. He is survived by his daughters—Marcy A. Shoemaker and her husband Robert Shoemaker; Nancy Abramson Wolfson, who currently serves on the Penn Medicine Board, and her husband Richard Wolfson; and Judy Abramson Felgoise and her husband Marc Felgoise—as well as his 11 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Gifts in his memory may be made to the Abramson Cancer Center or Philly Fights Cancer.