Therese Brook, who died in early 2010 at age 93, survived her share of hardship, but she lived to see the realization of a loving tribute to her daughter, Renee Margolis.
 Therese Brook |
In 2009, Brook created a bequest of real estate to City of Hope worth more than $1 million. In recognition, a laboratory in the recently opened Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center for Cancer Immunotherapeutics & Tumor Immunology was named the Renee K. Margolis, Ph.D., Cellular Immunotherapeutics Laboratory.
Born in Warsaw in 1916, Brook moved as a young woman to Paris, where she married and had a daughter. When her husband was taken prisoner during the Nazi occupation of France, Brook worked in factories while struggling to protect and raise her young child.
They made it through these hard years and relocated to the U.S. in 1954. She and her husband divorced the following year, and Therese married Victor Brook.
In America, her daughter, Renee, flourished. She earned her doctorate in pharmacology and launched a distinguished academic career in neurobiology. She published more than 100 papers and collaborated with her husband, Richard Margolis, Ph.D., to write two books.
However, tragedy struck the family in 1998, when peritoneal cancer claimed Renee Margolis’ life. She was 60 years old.
“Therese never got over it,” said Elaine Fischel, Brook’s friend and lawyer. She turned her grief into generosity, however, including City of Hope in her estate plans. Her December 2009 visit to the new lab during the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center’s dedication brought her real joy.
“She lit up. She was just thrilled when she saw the laboratory with her daughter’s name on it,” Fischel said. “Seeing the lab gave her hope that a cure for this treacherous disease would be found. That was the most wonderful thing that happened.”
