Many factors influence decision-makers considering philanthropic gifts. At the time, there wasn’t an obvious connection between Meharry and the Carl J. Herzog Foundation, but there was gratitude and excitement with an initial $6,000 gift in 1985 toward the Plan for Academic Renewal Campaign.
The foundation’s generosity eventually became a $3.5 million endowment through which approximately 20 African American men annually receive merit scholarships. The Carl J. Herzog Presidential Endowed Scholarship remains Meharry’s largest endowed scholarship and has inspired countless other donors.
The principal or corpus from the endowment has over time grown to $5.5 million. Dr. Carl J. Herzog, was a chemist and founder of Duke Laboratories and the Duke Laboratories Foundation (1952) which, in 1954, became the Carl J. Herzog Foundation.
Dr. Herzog worked during his retirement years to promote and enhance basic and multidisciplinary research in dermatology at the country’s prominent medical centers. Most of the Foundation’s grants were in medicine—especially dermatology.
Dr. Herzog died in 1980. The support for Meharry continued, progressing further when, in 2002, Billy R. Ballard, D.D.S. ’65, M.D. ’80, an esteemed Meharry alumnus, professor in the School of Medicine and former chairman of pathology and associate dean of Graduate Medical Education organized a campus visit.
Several representatives of the Carl J. Herzog Foundation, including their president, Peter Bentley; secretary, Dr. Nancy Alcock; and treasurer, David Babson, Jr.; toured the campus and met with Meharry administrators. Dr. Alcock and Dr. Ballard had been colleagues at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston where Dr. Ballard had served as vice president for student affairs and associate dean for student affairs and admissions in the School of Medicine. The site visit was successful, and Dr. Ballard, Mr. Bentley and Dr. Alcock led the proposal’s development, aiming to secure a major gift from the Carl J. Herzog Foundation to support scholarships for Black men—particularly timely given the decline in enrollment for African American male medical students.
The site visit was successful, and Dr. Ballard, Mr. Bentley and Dr. Alcock led the proposal’s development, aiming to secure a major gift from the Carl J. Herzog Foundation to support scholarships for Black men—particularly timely given the decline in enrollment for African American male medical students.