Barbara Woodward Lips
The gratitude of a patient who depended on Mayo Clinic for more than 40 years was expressed through one of the largest gifts ever received by Mayo Clinic. Barbara Woodward Lips left a bequest to Mayo Clinic of $127.9 million. The funds were placed in the Mayo Clinic endowment in support of Mayo's research and education programs aimed at achieving excellence in patient care.
Mrs. Lips was born in Oklahoma. In her early years she worked as a sales clerk in a department store and later as a secretary at a sawmill. She met Charles Storch Lips in the 1940s, and the couple married in 1949 at his home in San Antonio. The family had extensive oil, gas and ranching interests in Kansas and Texas. When Mr. Lips became ill, Mrs. Lips began learning the business. After the death of her husband in 1970, she expanded the family businesses.
Mrs. Lips was a Mayo patient for more than 40 years and made many significant gifts to Mayo during her lifetime, including $10,000 to have fresh flowers placed at all times in the Lips Atrium on Mayo's campus in Rochester, Minn. She believed that philanthropy is a way to "cultivate hope."
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