UMC gets $1 million gift

By Cydney Cappello

Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009 | 5:29 p.m.

UnitedHealthcare Nevada presented the University Medical Center Foundation with $500,000 at the Clark County Commission meeting on Tuesday.

The donation is to go toward new equipment and improvements at the cardiology center, but also is to honor former chief of cardiology Dr. Tony Marlon.

“This is an important day for us,” UnitedHealthcare Nevada president John Bunker said. “When Dr. Marlon decided to retire last year we were trying to decide what we would do to honor him and we just felt it was very important that we recognize how sincerely and how important UMC was and always has been to him, so we decided to make this award in his honor and felt very good about the cause.”

The $500,000 gift was matched by the Tony and Renee Marlon Charitable Foundation, raising the total $1 million.

“We hope that our gift is just the beginning of the entire community rallying around UMC and the great work that this foundation does and the needed services that have been at this hospital,” Bunker said.

Upon receiving the $500,000 check, Cindy Williams, UMC Foundation president, said she was grateful for the donation, but had the economy on her mind.

“We would like to thank you for stepping up in a very difficult economy and having this $500,000 given to the foundation for UMC, and if I could challenge more of the companies, such as UnitedHealth, to step up at a difficult time like this to also lend your support to a viable, needed institute,” Williams said.

Marlon’s career began at the former Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital as an invasive cardiologist in 1974 and he also founded Sierra Health Services.

Commissioner Lawrence Weekly suggested the laboratory be named in honor of Marlon, an item that might be decided at a later meeting.