A Warren County woman with no direct ties to the University of Missouri has left the MU School of Medicine part of her estate in honor of her husband.

Combined with an earlier gift, Melna Bolm contributed a total of $1.3 million to MU in honor of George Bolm, a postal worker and hobby farmer who died in 2000. The money will be used to further research into cardiovascular issues, which plagued George, and the macular degeneration she suffered from.

Melna Bolm shed some light into reasons for her gifts in a statement she wrote in 2003 after contributing the first $550,000 to the medical school.

"Too many people continue to die from heart attacks, and I wanted to support the type of basic research that could help everyone suffering from cardiovascular disease," she wrote in a statement provided by MU.

Bolm loved research, her cousin, Bonnie Vahle, told a group of administrators and relatives gathered this morning at the Reynolds Alumni Center to honor the contributions.

"If there was something she wanted to know, she would research it until she found the answer," Vahle said.

After her husband died after a series of strokes, she began to research cardiovascular disease.

Through the family attorney, Melna worked with William Crist, former dean of the medical school, to establish the George L. and Melna A. Bolm Distinguished Professor in Cardiovascular Health. Bolm's estate has added $550,000, elevating the position, held by Ronald Korthuis, to a distinguished chair.

The money will be used to support his salary as well as research endeavors, said Tom Hiles, vice chancellor of development and alumni relations.

Another $250,000 from the estate establishes a faculty scholar in ophthalmology, also named in the couple's honor. Professor Dean Hainsworth, who researches macular degeneration, has been tapped for that position.

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Gift to MU medical school will boost research