CAMDEN — South Jersey political leader George Norcross and his wife Sandra on Thursday announced a $5 million pledge to Cooper University Hospital as part of a $50 million capital campaign.
As part of their pledge, the Norcrosses presented the hospital with a check for $1 million.
“This check and our pledge is a way to honor our past, while calling the next generations into action,” said George Norcross, chairman of Cooper’s board of trustees. “We are doing this in the names of our parents, George and Carol Norcross; John and Doris Triem; and the entire Norcross family. It was my father's original dream that Cooper, to which he had dedicated so much of his life as a trustee and advocate, would become the backbone of a new future for Camden and the entire South Jersey community.”
The pledge coincides with the recent accreditation of the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University and the announcement of the new Cooper Cancer Institute. The Cooper Medical School, an initiative led by George Norcross’s father nearly 40 years ago, will be the first new medical school in New Jersey in more than 30 years and one of only 135 in the country.
It will admit its first class in the fall of 2012.
The new $100 million Cooper Cancer Institute in Camden will break ground in April and is expected to open in the fall of 2013.
The Most Reverend Joseph A. Galante, bishop of the Diocese of Camden, said, “George's dedication and commitment to the revitalization of the City of Camden is demonstrated by this extraordinarily generous pledge that he and Sandy have made.” He added that “George's continuing effort to replace the despair of the present with hope for the future encourages all of us.”
Sal Paolantonio, author and national television commentator for ESPN, spoke of the Norcross legacy and Cooper’s vital role over generations.
“George is always looking to make a difference. As a prominent businessman, philanthropist and ardent advocate for urban education reforms, I can think of no single person or family that has had more of an impact on this community.”
In December 2008, Cooper completed construction of a $250-million, 10-story Patient Pavilion, the largest project in the city’s history.