MEDICAL : ‘Phenomenal’ Support Brings Hoag Near $21-Million Cancer Center Goal

Since starting a special fund-raising drive in October, 1986, Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach says it has raised $19.7 million of its $21-million goal for development of a Hoag Cancer Center.

Suzanne Schwellenbach, who has directed the cancer center fund-raising campaign, called the outpouring of community support for the project “phenomenal.” She said the hospital had been concerned that fund raising for the center might lag because it “came on the heels” of a fund-raising program by the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. But, she said, that hasn’t happened.

Major contributors to the cancer center, which is to open in late 1989 or early 1990, include the Hoag Foundation, which contributed $6 million, and the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, which gave $2 million.