From the Duke News Service

April 22, 1999

Greensboro businessman and Duke University alumnus Robert P. Gorrell and his wife Sarah will give $2.1 million to the Duke University Medical Center to help children who suffer from psychiatric problems, Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane announced Thursday.

The deferred gift will endow the Gorrell Chair in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Duke's department of psychiatry. The commitment is in honor of Gorrell's 45th Duke class reunion last fall.

"We are very grateful for the generosity and vision of North Carolinians like Bob and Sarah Gorrell," Keohane said. "By helping build a strong base of endowed funds at Duke University Medical Center, they ensure that the extraordinary contributions of academic medicine will continue to benefit the children of this region for many generations to come."

An earlier endowment established by the Gorrells in 1979 — the Gorrell Family Psychiatry Research Endowment — supports research in children's psychiatry. Their daughters, Mary Gorrell Jones and Sally Gorrell Kuratnick, also have contributed to the research endowment.

"An endowed chair is the most coveted and prestigious position in academic medicine," said Dr. Ralph Snyderman, chancellor for health affairs and chief executive officer of the Duke University Health System. "This gift will enable Duke to attract a world leader in child and adolescent psychiatry who will strengthen immeasurably our research and training in this critical field."

The Gorrell family has longstanding ties to Duke. The former owner of Carolina Moving and Storage Co. in Greensboro, Gorrell received an undergraduate degree in economics at Duke in 1953. He currently serves as president and chief executive officer of SABOB Corp., an equipment leasing company. His brother, Joseph P. Gorrell, is also a Duke University graduate, as was his late grandfather, Joseph P. Turner, who was a physician in Greensboro for many years. In addition to their gifts to the medical center, the department of psychiatry and Duke athletics, the Gorrells have supported Duke's College of Arts and Sciences and the Duke University Alumni Association through the years.

"Years ago, when a member of our family needed help, we looked around and found there wasn't much research being done in child psychiatry," Robert Gorrell said. "Sarah and I have been blessed with the means to serve others. We hope our gifts will serve as tools to carry on the work of child psychiatry at Duke in perpetuity."

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