ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : A Boon for UCI in Research

Louise Turner Arnold, a Laguna Beach businesswoman, knows the difference between complaint and action. Saying she has watched as aging loved ones suffered memory loss and other mental impairment, Arnold decided to do what she could to advance research in such geriatric problems: She pledged $1.62 million to finance the most richly endowed chair ever at UC Irvine.

The money, which will come from the sale of a 13,000-square-foot vacant lot in a gated community in Laguna Beach, will establish a chair in neurosciences at UCI.

According to James L. McGaugh, director of UCI’s Bonney Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, Arnold’s endowment will help the university attract and keep scientific talent to address the problems of aging. Among the areas of research will be memory disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease. Parkinson’s disease, which also affects many elderly people, also will be studied.

Unlike many private institutions, endowments for chairs at the University of California are used only to fund research, not to pay the salaries of the professors who fill the chairs. Over the 27 years since its founding, UCI has been able to establish 18 chairs, which have moved forward research in such diverse areas as head and spinal injuries, ophthalmology and Jewish history. Arnold’s chair will add yet another field of study to that list.

Arnold’s generosity didn’t come out of nowhere. The president and owner of Turner Associates, a Laguna Beach real estate firm, Arnold has a long history of activism in fund raising for the university. Among her roles have been director of the UCI Foundation and a member of the Chancellor’s Club and the Founder’s Circle of the College of Medicine.

But this most recent gift is exceptional, even given that track record. It accomplishes many things at once. It enhances UCI’s growing reputation in neurosciences, and provides inspiration for others to give to the university.

Most important, Arnold’s gift highlights a crucial human issue that touches nearly everyone.