Cancer Research Fund Gets $10,000 Boost
About 180 guests gathered to remember Daniel Aldrich, founding chancellor of UC Irvine, and to establish a cancer research fund in his name at a “Sunday Supper at The Ritz.”
Guests, who responded to the suggested dress code of “casual elegance” with dapper suits for men and long flowing dresses and pantsuits for women, paid $100 each to attend the dinner at the Newport Beach restaurant. The dinner included a live auction and was expected to raise about $10,000 for the Daniel G. Aldrich Memorial Cancer Research Fund.
Ritzy Affair
The Ritz restaurant, with its polished wood, oil paintings in gilded frames and dimly lighted interior, gave the event the feel of a cozy dinner party.
“We thought this would be a nice intimate affair,” said Eva Schneider, dinner co-chairwoman with Elaine Redfield.
The evening began with a champagne reception during which guests wandered from room to room admiring the restaurant’s Old World charm.
“They don’t build them like this anymore,” said Ritz owner Hans Prager. “It’s kind of like the 21 club in New York City.”
Prager had chefs prepare an elegant meal featuring cream of broccoli soup, salad with bay shrimp, roast duck Bavarian and, for dessert, tuille with fresh berries and lemon sorbet.
War Against Cancer
Honorary chairwoman Jean Aldrich said her late husband would have been pleased with the benefit for cancer research.
“Research is at the very heart of fighting cancer. That’s where the answers will some day come,” she said.
Proceeds from the dinner will be used for science laboratories in the new UCI Clinical Cancer Center at the UCI Medical Center in Orange. Aldrich participated in the center’s ground-breaking ceremony in November 1989 and played a strong role in its development.
“We’re building state-of-the-art labs that will make the cancer center unique,” said Shirley Lorenz, development director for the Clinical Cancer Center.
“There’s no one here who hasn’t been touched by cancer,” she said.
Other guests were UCI Chancellor Jack Peltason and his wife, Suzanne, Richard and Pat Allen, Gayle Anderson, Mary Dell Barkouras, Lillian Fluor, UCI Vice Chancellor Walter Henry and his wife, Maria del Carmen Calvo, and UCI Vice Chancellor Kathy Jones and husband Mike.
Also attending were Dr. Frank Meyskens, director of the UCI Clinical Cancer Center, Mary Piccione, director of the UCI Medical Center, Leslie and Peggy Cotton, Dr. Tom Doan and wife Dorothy, Carl and Pat Neisser, Paul and Barbara Ramsey, Richard and Patty Schmid, Dr. Dennis Smith, executive vice chancellor, and wife Suzanne, Delane and Catherine Thyen and Cecil and Kathryn Wright.
