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Gift to ease labor pains has a long gestation
May 13, 2008
by Jessica Marsden '08
This spring, the School of Medicine's development office learned about a new donation -- from a Yale alumnus who had been dead for 60 years.
Albert McKern '13MA, an Australian, studied engineering at Yale nearly a century ago. The university is receiving his bequest only now because it was delayed by the terms of the will; in the interim, his gift grew in value to US$4 million. "I certainly didn't know about it, and I don't think anyone else at Yale did," says School of Medicine dean Robert Alpern.
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Albert McKern left no statement elaborating on the reasons for his bequest. |
McKern's will states that his gift should be used to study the pain associated with pregnancy and childbirth. As far as Yale knows, he left no statement elaborating on the reasons for his bequest. But McKern was a practicing medical doctor, and Alpern speculates that he may have been moved by the experiences of women he treated. The income, Alpern says, may be used by faculty in obstetrics and gynecology, anesthesiology, or even psychiatry.
McKern arranged in his will to provide for his wife and three children during their lifetimes, with final settlement of the estate to come ten years after the death of the last survivor among the four. McKern left equal amounts of money for the same purpose to the universities of Sydney and Edinburgh, where he also received degrees, and the will encourages the three schools to collaborate on research.
McKern took a circuitous route to his profession. Born in Australia, he studied theology at the University of Sydney and engineering at Yale before enrolling in medical school at the University of Edinburgh. He subsequently opened a medical practice in Penang, Malaysia, where he also made substantial real estate investments. During World War II, McKern boarded a ship to flee the invading Japanese, but the ship was captured, and he was interned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. He died of dysentery there in 1945, shortly after writing the new will that recognized his three alma maters.  |
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