Melinda and David Friedman: New Arrivals to Our Family of Hospital Philanthropists

Melinda and David spent the early years of their now almost 32-year marriage in Boca Raton. From the start they were a team, building together their professional and personal lives. David, who received his law degree from Duke, has over his career combined his legal background and Wall Street experience to serve in leadership roles in the hedge fund industry.

In 2013, Melinda and David returned home to Boca Raton and immediately immersed themselves in the community. Melinda serves in leadership roles in the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach and Hillel of Broward and Palm Beach. David is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jacobson Jewish Community Foundation and the Board of Governors of Boca Rio Golf Club. David is also a director of a biotechnology company currently conducting a clinical trial of its oncology drug at MD Anderson.

Since returning to Boca Raton, the Friedmans have become patients of the Hospital both for their primary and specialty care. Melinda and David have had extremely positive experiences and are donors to the Hospital. As David says, "We are increasingly recognizing the importance of having the best possible healthcare available here at home." The Friedmans' interest in health has also been influenced by being parents of a child with ASD. They are acutely aware of what families face with difficult diagnoses and health issues.

Their relationship with the Hospital was strongly influenced by their friendships with the Barry and Erdle families. Stan Barry is the Chair of the Hospital's Foundation Board of Trustees and Co-Chair of the Hospital's capital campaign. Stan and his wife, Marilyn, are members of the Golden Guild. Like the Barrys, Harvey and Nadine Erdle and their family have shown a longstanding and deep commitment to the Hospital and are members of the Eminent Philanthropist group.

Melinda and David have made a combination of immediate gifts and irrevocable deferred gifts to the Hospital, and are members of the Noble Philanthropist group. The Friedmans also donate to the Morgan Pressel Center for Cancer Genetics and the Lynn Cancer Institute of Boca Raton Regional Hospital. They are interested in the clinical trials for Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) that are being conducted at the Hospital. GBM is a virulent brain cancer that recently took the life of Sen. John McCain and previously claimed the lives of former Vice President Joe Biden's son Beau and of Sen. Edward Kennedy. Boca Raton Regional Hospital is honored to be one of only four sites chosen for these accelerated Phase II/III clinical trials together with Duke, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the University of California, San Francisco, Medical Center.

The Friedmans are enthusiastic about the Hospital's future as an outstanding center for clinical care, teaching, and research, and represent a new generation of leaders dedicated to insuring that Boca Raton provides the best quality of healthcare to the community.

If you would like to make a gift to the Hospital like the Friedmans did, please contact Boca Raton Regional Hospital Foundation at 561-955-4142 or BRRHFoundation@baptisthealth.net.