Colorado State creates new chair through $3 million gift

Fort Collins, Colo.

-- Colorado State University’s Animal Cancer Center has created a new chair in comparative oncology, thanks to a $3 million gift from the Shipley Foundation.

The chair, called the Shipley University Chair, will be filled later through an international search, and will help support translational research between animal and human cancer treatments and prevention.

The Shipley Foundation has been involved with the Animal Cancer Center for at least a decade, with a special interest in what human medicine can learn from comparing cancer behavior and research across different species.“This latest gift is a culmination of 10 years of friendship between the Shipley family and the Animal Cancer Center, as well as the Shipley family’s commitment to finding creative and groundbreaking tools to beat cancer,” said Dr. Rod Page, director of the Animal Cancer Center, part of the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. “Three generations of the Shipley family have shared and supported our vision that understanding the connections between cancer in people and cancer in pets collectively helps all species.”

In 2000, Charles and Lucia Shipley established the Shipley Natural Healing Center with a $1 million gift, and the foundation provided an additional $1.2 million to support its programs. Charles Shipley died in 2004, and Lucia joined him earlier this year. Their son has continued the family tradition of giving.

“My parents were proud of their association with the Animal Cancer Center, and they were happy to support the research being conducted under our family’s name by Dr. Elizabeth Ryan and others at the center,” said Richard Shipley, president of the Shipley Foundation. “This chair will be a lasting memorial to their lifelong refusal to be satisfied with conventional measures to solve problems.”

The Animal Cancer Center is the largest of its kind in the world, treating about 1,500 pets each year.