Shivers Foundation

The Shivers Cancer Foundation and its predecessor, the Capital Area Radiation and Research Foundation, have long been dedicated to improving cancer care throughout Central Texas. Through the contribution of two academic endowments to the Dell Medical School at The University of Texas at Austin, the Shivers Cancer Foundation hopes to advance its mission by providing the funds to help train and prepare a new generation of physicians who are rethinking everything about health care.

Clarke Heidrick, chairman of the Shivers Cancer Foundation’s Board of Directors, was a strong advocate for Central Health Proposition 1 in 2012, which authorized additional tax funds to establish a medical school at UT Austin. Heidrick and the Shivers Cancer Foundation felt the new Dell Medical School would greatly benefit cancer patients in Central Texas, particularly those without health insurance.

The endowed faculty chairs include the Askew Chair in Oncology and the Arthur H. Dilly Chair in Pediatric Oncology. Dr. Robert Askew Sr. and Arthur Dilly, the two men for whom the chairs are named, served on the Shivers Cancer Foundation’s Board of Directors for many years. The Shivers Cancer Foundation contributed $1 million to each endowed chair, representing the largest gifts in the foundation’s granting history.

“This gift will help ensure that the Dell Medical School has a top-flight physician providing cancer care to Travis County residents and training the next generation of doctors,” said Clay Johnston, inaugural dean of Dell Medical School, 2014-2021, in 2014 after the Askew Chair endowment was announced.

The foundation’s history dates back to late 1968, when a community health planning committee, required by the federal Hill-Burton Hospital Construction Program, recommended that radiation therapy for cancer patients be implemented for Central Texas. Alan Shivers, former Texas governor and past chairman of the UT System Board of Regents, accepted the leadership role for the radiation therapy program and in 1970 established the Capital Area Radiation and Research Foundation as the operational unit. For nearly 20 years that foundation provided the initial nonprofit, open-staff, quality radiation therapy services to the Central Texas community. In the 1990s, the foundation sold its radiation centers to the Seton Healthcare Family (now Ascension Seton), dedicating the proceeds to establish the Shivers Cancer Foundation. Since then, the income from the proceeds of that sale has been used to award more than $10 million in grants to various organizations to improve and advance comprehensive cancer treatment and other services to cancer patients throughout Central Texas.

For the highest-quality physicians, patient-centered care is more than just a model of care — it becomes a lifestyle.

The late Dr. Robert Askew Sr. exemplified this practice well. As a masterful general surgeon, Askew’s level of character and heartfelt kindness toward his patients was evident to all.

“I learned from my father that it’s not about the science of medicine as much as it’s about the compassion of medicine,” said his eldest son, Dr. Robert Askew Jr., also a general surgeon.

Askew went above and beyond not only for his patients but also for the newer doctors whom he mentored.

“Bob Askew was the dean of Austin surgeons for a long time. He took a lot of time with younger physicians to help them be as good as they could be. He left a great legacy to this community,” Heidrick said.

“To be honored in the same manner as the foundation chose to honor my good friend and mentor, Dr. Bob Askew, means more to me than you can possibly imagine,” Dilly said.

Dilly believes in the need for specialized clinical and research efforts in pediatric oncology.

“Children with cancer are more than ‘little adults.’ A comprehensive treatment program for those patients requires age-appropriate clinical and psychosocial elements,” Dilly said.

“It is exciting for all of us who love and admire Art Dilly so much to honor him as a wonderful friend to both the community and the university he loves and has served so well,” Heidrick said. “It is very fitting that the holder of the Arthur H. Dilly Chair in Pediatric Oncology will provide direct care to the children of our region who have cancer and also will lead research efforts in pediatric oncology.”

The Askew Chair in Oncology will be associated with the Department of Internal Medicine, and the Arthur H. Dilly Chair in Pediatric Oncology will be housed in the Department of Pediatrics, where the holder will also be chair of the Hematology-Oncology service at Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas.

In support of the clinical phase of the medical school, the foundation has also contributed $1 million to Ascension Seton toward the construction of the new teaching hospital.

Published May 2018