Since City of Hope’s earliest days, caring people across the country have supported the institution’s fight against life-threatening disease. That tradition continues to this day. Some supporters know the toll of serious illness firsthand; others simply want to improve life for the many people who face cancer and other diseases. Together, their support helps City of Hope build a healthier future for patients everywhere.

Charles DeVault held his values dear. He believed in hard work. He believed in helping others. And he believed in science.

So DeVault, of Los Angeles, planned his estate to ensure that the fruits of his hard work would benefit others by supporting scientific research. The resulting bequest recently provided more than $1 million to advance leukemia investigations at City of Hope.

After three decades working in the telephone industry, DeVault retired in 1987 and devoted his time to the activities he loved — reading, sailing, hiking and distance running.

His close friend, Kathleen Jolly of Monrovia, Calif., met him in 1995 through a shared passion: Sierra Club hikes. She quickly discovered he was always eager to help others.

“If somebody wasn’t back at the end of the hike, he was always the guy who was willing — and strong enough — to hike back up and help them down,” she said.

Jolly had recently completed the Los Angeles Marathon when they met, and DeVault soon began training for the marathon himself. A mid-pack runner, he completed the marathon 10 times starting in 1996.

Uncharacteristically out of breath during a 2008 hike, DeVault consulted a doctor. Ultimately, he sought help from City of Hope and received a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia.

Margaret O’Donnell, M.D., clinical professor and associate clinical director in the Department of Hematology & Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, oversaw his care. The patient and his physician established a quick rapport.

“Dr. O’Donnell was the perfect doctor for Chuck,” said Jolly. “She understood him, and he immediately trusted her. Dr. O made all the difference for him.”

DeVault died in May 2010 at age 71. Jolly noted that O’Donnell helped him get the most out of the two years he lived after diagnosis.

DeVault left little doubt about where he wanted his contribution to go. “The only thing he considered was research,” Jolly said. “That was what he believed in.”

Charles DeVault

Leon Levy lost two of the people he loved the most to cancer. Now he wants part of his life’s work to go toward fighting the disease.

An avid ally of City of Hope for decades, Levy is both a donor and a key volunteer with Northern California’s Doubles Chapter. In his latest show of support, Levy arranged his estate plans to include a significant bequest to City of Hope.

“I thought it would be nice to leave a little bit of a legacy,” said Levy, a pharmacist who lives in Burlingame, Calif. “This seemed like a great way to help City of Hope. After all, I know firsthand what illness can do.”

Cancer took the lives of both his son, David, and his wife of 41 years, Charlotte. Following his wife’s death in 2000, he gave $25,000 in her memory. A plaque in City of Hope’s Rose Garden bears her name.

The family’s involvement with City of Hope began in the 1960s when Charlotte Levy joined a local women’s auxiliary. By the 1980s, some members looked to enlist their partners for the cause, and the Doubles Chapter was born. The chapter started out with fundraising dinners, then expanded to larger events.

A pivitol moment that solidified the Levys’ commitment to City of Hope was a visit to campus during the 1980s. They brought along David, as well as their daughter, Cindy.

“It made a big difference to see City of Hope with our own eyes,” Leon Levy said. “We were especially touched to see the accommodations offered to family members while their loved ones were in treatment. It showed the compassion that City of Hope is known for.”

Although Levy is proud of his chapter’s work on behalf of City of Hope, he knows he and his fellow chapter members can do more.

Said Levy: “We don’t want to rest on our laurels. We keep going.”

Leon Levy

Eleanor Kolpan has never visited City of Hope but she believes strongly in the power of its research and treatment.

“They do wonderful things,” said the 89-year-old West Palm Beach, Fla., resident. “They’re trying to cure terrible diseases that don’t have a cure yet. And I think they probably will find a cure in the coming years.”

A longtime City of Hope supporter, Kolpan is including in her estate plans a significant gift to City of Hope — one of several charities that will benefit from her bequests. Her dedication to helping others is a value she shared with her late husband, Harold Kolpan.

“He always said, ‘If you give, you get back,’” she said.

Eleanor Kolpan has seen difficult times. Growing up the daughter of a widowed single mother in New York City during the Great Depression, she struggled with hunger and poverty into young adulthood.

Her fortunes turned around when she encountered a young man from a similarly modest background — an Air Force gunner freshly returned from World War II. A month after meeting him at a welcome-home party in New York, she wed Harold Kolpan.

“When I brought my husband home, my mother said right away, ‘He’s for you.’ And she was right. We were two of a kind,” she said.

They forged a close bond that would last 63 years, until his death in 2007. The couple invested wisely during those six decades; they settled in Florida in 1953 and bought real estate in Orlando before it became a prime tourist destination.

Amid financial success, the Kolpans also lived up to their shared commitment to philanthropy. They became life members of the Delray Beach Chapter and supported City of Hope as their favorite charity.

Eleanor Kolpan stated her hope for her contributions in simple terms: “I like to help people who really need it. I hope my gift will help others.”

Eleanor Kolpan

PHOTOS: LORRI UNGARETTI;
ALBERT M. BARG PHOTOGRAPHY