Poway Couple Donates $8 Million to Scripps

A retired Poway couple has donated $8 million to the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, the largest single gift ever received by the institute.

Scripps officials identified the couple as Sam and Rose Stein, both 78, who moved to Poway in 1982 from Sandusky, Ohio. Jim Triolo, a Scripps spokesman, said that Stein, a former coffee salesman, made his fortune by forming the first company to market pre-formed meat patties separated by wax paper.

“Mr. Stein came to us about a year ago and said he wanted to do something that had long-term meaning for Scripps and mankind,” said Dr. Charles Edwards, the clinic’s president and chief executive officer. “Some of the money will go into neurophysiology and Alzheimer’s disease research, as well as cardiovascular disease research, but there are no restrictions on how the funds are to be used.”

Edwards said that the Steins established a trust in their names that will provide $8 million to the clinic over the next 10 years. The yearly interest on the fund will be $800,000, Edwards said. Scripps officials said the Steins had previously given the clinic $250,000 for research into Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular diseases.

“The Steins feel very strongly about Alzheimer’s research. A very close friend of theirs in Sandusky developed the disease,” Triolo said.

The Steins, who were described as being in excellent health, have been patients at the clinic since 1979, Scripps officials said. Triolo, who said he knows the couple well, described them as “terribly unpretentious” with a dislike “for the big splash.” The Steins have been married 56 years and are avid golfers, Triolo said.

Scripps Clinic is not the first beneficiary of the Steins’ generosity. According to Triolo, the couple built a hospital named the Sam S. and Rose Stein Hospital for doctors and osteopaths in Sandusky. The hospital was dedicated in September.

Scripps Clinic, the largest privately owned biomedical research center in the world, was founded in 1924 by Ellen B. Scripps, of the Scripps Newspapers family. The center, whose research budget was more than $50 million this year, employs 1,000 people.

Triolo said the clinic receives $15 million to $20 million a year in gifts.

The largest single gift previously received by the clinic was $7.2 million in 1980 from a couple from Downey, which is outside Los Angeles.

Triolo said the Steins were winter residents of Poway for 20 years before moving there permanently in 1982. According to a Scripps statement, the Steins also have established eight charitable trusts elsewhere devoted to research of childhood diseases.