Art Klimeck is a retired physicist from Hughes Aircraft. His reason for giving back? "I'm just following the golden rule. You know, giving to others . . ."
Art's personal experience with Long Beach Medical Center began after he made a thorough search of the best treatment options available in Southern California for prostate cancer. With his highly technical background he investigated the pros and cons of all the technologies and treatment options, the level of expertise of each cancer center in the region and their accessibility to his home in San Pedro.
He thought about going to UCLA, but found that the experts in the treatment and technology he wanted to pursue, TomoTherapy, were right here in Long Beach. Alam Nisar Syed, MD, medical director of the Leavey Radiation Oncology Center at the MemorialCare Todd Cancer Institute agreed with his choice of therapy. Art received the latest radiation treatment five-days-a-week, for nine weeks and is now cancer free.
His gratitude was at first expressed as an unrestricted gift – as he says, "just about equal to the money I saved by not having to drive 75 miles a day and paying for parking." When Art learned about the new Todd Cancer Pavilion, he saw an opportunity to do more. He had listened to stories from several friends about their experiences of long hours spent in infusion centers. Art was so moved, that he made a gift to name one of the new infusion rooms being built with healing in mind.