Madlyn K. Abramson (ED’57, GED’60), emeritus trustee of the University of Pennsylvania whose donation with her husband established Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center, died April 15 of complications from a stroke. She was 84.

Born in Philadelphia, Mrs. Abramson graduated from Philadelphia High School for Girls and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Penn. She taught in the Upper Darby School District and was a reading specialist in the Philadelphia School District before joining the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit, which was then in West Norriton and now is in Norristown.

A cancer survivor, Mrs. Abramson was committed to research that would ease the psychological and physiological suffering caused by cancer. In 1997, she and her husband, Leonard, the CEO of US Healthcare, made a $100 million gift to establish the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute to integrate research, education and comprehensive patient care at what was then known as Penn’s Comprehensive Cancer Center (Almanac December 16/23, 1997). At the time of their pledge, it was the largest single contribution for cancer research to a National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center. It was also one of the largest gifts ever made to a university. In 2002, the institute was renamed the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania in the couple’s honor (Almanac July 16, 2002). Today it is called Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center.

Gifts from the Abramsons also established the Abramson Family Professorship in Sarcoma Care Excellence at the center (Almanac July 16, 2002), as well as the Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Professorship in Clinical Oncology (Almanac December 16/23, 1997).

In 1997, Mrs. Abramson became a Penn trustee and went on to serve on the board’s executive, external affairs and student life committees. She was elected a charter member on the Penn Medicine Board, where she served on the executive committee. She served on the School of Medicine and Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania boards as well. She was chair of the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute and the honorary chair of the Abramson Cancer Center Director’s Leadership Council. She also served on the committee for Confronting Cancer Through Art, a juried exhibition of works by artists whose lives have been touched by cancer. She was a member of the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women and also served as an overseer of the Graduate School of Education, where she made a leadership pledge to provide scholarship support to benefit candidates in the master’s and doctorate programs.

The Abramsons also created the Pediatric Research Center of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which opened in 1995 and more than doubled the space available for scientific projects. Earlier this year, the couple gave $1 million to support Abramson Cancer Center research related to COVID-19.

Mrs. Abramson led the committee for Philly Fights Cancer (PFC), the annual event benefitting the Abramson Cancer Center. In January 2019, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney presented the event’s co-chairs with an official citation commending Philly Fights Cancer and the Abramson Cancer Center’s groundbreaking work.

According to Board of Trustees Chair David L. Cohen and Penn President Amy Gutmann, “Madlyn’s bold vision and philanthropic spirit touched the lives of countless individuals by transforming how Penn conducts cancer research and provides care to those affected by this devastating disease.”

Outside of Penn, the Abramson family’s philanthropic gifts included $10 million to Temple University’s dental school, renamed after Mrs. Abramson’s father, Maurice H. Kornberg, a dentist and alumnus. They also established the Madlyn and Leonard Abramson Center for Jewish Life, an assisted-living, skilled nursing and gerontological research facility in Horsham. They were also instrumental in expanding the emergency medicine department at Montgomery Hospital Medical Center in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Among their many other gifts were scholarships at Pennsylvania College of Optometry, a professorship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and research grants at the University of Judaism and the Parkinson’s Institute, which earned the Abramson Family Foundation its Outstanding Achievement in Parkinson’s Disease Award. Mrs. Abramson was a very active volunteer outside of Penn for organizations throughout the Philadelphia area.

Mrs. Abramson is survived by her husband, Leonard; daughters, Nancy Wolfson, Marcy Shoemaker and Judy Felgoise; and 10 grandchildren. Services are private. A memorial will be held at a later date.