Mitchel Covel, 90; helped lead fundraising efforts for UCLA

Mitchel Covel, 90, a cardiologist and philanthropist whose fundraising efforts at UCLA were recognized when the university named Covel Commons at the Sunset Village campus housing area for him and his wife, Susan, died Friday of natural causes at his home in Bel-Air.

Covel was associate dean of development and community relations at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA until he retired in 1996.

He joined the clinical faculty of the UCLA School of Medicine in 1960 and in 1974 co-founded the Aesculapians, the medical school’s main support group. He served as chairman of the organization for two decades, helping raise more than $18 million in unrestricted funds, which can be used wherever the administration sees the need: for recruiting faculty, providing aid to financially strapped students, funding research or for any emergencies.

An enthusiastic volunteer and benefactor, Covel was co-founder of the UCLA Medical Alumni Assn., co-chairman of the Campaign UCLA fundraising operation and a member of the UCLA Foundation board of trustees.

In addition to their support of medical programs at UCLA, the Covels contributed major gifts to the College of Letters and Science, the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and the School of the Arts and Architecture, which has an endowed chair in music named for them.

Born July 10, 1917, in San Francisco, Covel earned a bachelor’s degree from UCLA in 1938 and his medical degree from UC San Francisco in 1942. After serving as a battalion surgeon during World War II, he returned to Southern California and started a private practice in internal medicine and cardiology.