For Vanderweils, son’s excellent medical education brings gratitude and drive to give back

Gary Vanderweil is mostly retired from his career at Vanderweil Engineers, but he still commutes regularly into the company’s Boston office from Cohasett, where he and his wife Anne live. As he spoke to us via Zoom about his and Anne’s enthusiastic support of UMass Chan Medical School, the evolving skyline of the Seaport District sparkled behind his desk; a fitting backdrop for an engineer who designs buildings around the world. Two of Anne and Gary’s children followed in Gary’s footsteps, joining Vanderweil, but son Stefan Vanderweil, MD’12 R’16, chose a different path that took flight at UMass Chan. 

Gary recalls that Stefan first became interested in medicine in high school when he worked as a research assistant for a molecular biologist at a local lab. Research experiences at other labs soon followed, including the Whitehead Institute and the bio labs at Harvard University, where Stefan earned a bachelor’s degree in biochemical sciences in 2005, followed by a post-grad position as a lab technician in California. As Gary explained, Stefan ultimately realized that he “preferred the bedside to the bench,” choosing to pursue a medical degree.

While selecting a medical school, UMass Chan stood out, thanks largely to a “strong reputation, affordability and focus on Massachusetts,” said Gary. Around this time, UMass Chan’s prominence as a leading academic health sciences center was growing swiftly. UMass Chan professor and molecular biologist Craig Mello, PhD, was co-recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of RNA interference, and a few years later ground would break on the Albert Sherman Center, reflecting a strategic investment in cutting-edge biomedical research. At the same time, the Medical School stayed true to its core mission of training physicians on behalf of the commonwealth. 

Anne and Gary credit UMass Chan with providing Stefan an outstanding medical education that included exposure to many aspects of clinical medicine, hands-on rotations at several hospitals and the support of dedicated faculty who seemed to take a genuine, personal interest in training and mentoring medical students. Impressed by the tremendous value offered by UMass Chan, Anne and Gary felt strongly compelled to give back to the Medical School,
where Stefan also completed his dermatology residency.

Their generous, sustained giving for the past 15 years includes the naming of two conference rooms at the Albert Sherman Center and the establishment of an endowed scholarship fund for medical students.

Current recipient Natasha Bitar, a third-year student in the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, is grateful for the support.

“It is scholarships like this that enable me to focus on learning and bettering myself as a future physician with less financial worry,” she said.

Anne and Gary also give generously in unrestricted support, recognizing how valuable this flexible funding is to the Medical School.

Stefan currently practices dermatology in California, where he lives with his wife and three children. Back east, Anne and Gary enjoy outdoor activities such as golf and cross-country skiing, and the couple is also dedicated to a range of philanthropic interests alongside the Medical School. Gary summed up his and Anne’s experience as UMass Chan parents and now donors. 

“We’ve been enthusiastic boosters of UMass Chan since our son Stefan was a student. Both the faculty and student body impressed us—the faculty were a group of dedicated medical professionals on a mission to transfer knowledge, and the student body was bright, caring and energetic. We feel the school provided superior value to its students and to Massachusetts in general, given the extent to which students took up practice in the state. We are happy to support the school.”