O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center Magazine Spring 2019 | Page 7

“WHEN I THINK THAT
MY FOUR YOUNG
CHILDREN MIGHT LIVE
IN A WORLD WHERE
CANCER ISN’T SUCH
A PERVASIVE FEAR,
I’M FILLED WITH
OPTIMISM ABOUT
THE FUTURE.”
— Kirk Reed Forrester, great-granddaughter
of Kirkman O’Neal
to better understand how the gift could help leaders
advance strategic goals, the vote to make the gift was
unanimous.
“Every generation reaches a place in time when a
gift like this is not only possible, but also feels right,”
says Penny White Page, granddaughter of Kirkman
O’Neal. “As we have gotten older, we have a different
perspective and we are able to appreciate the
generations-long impact that support like this can have
for our city, our state and our region. We’re very much
proponents of making the right gift at the right time,
and we all agreed this was the right time and the right
opportunity for us.”
A LASTING LEGACY
The naming gift from O’Neal Industries is an
extraordinary milestone in the Cancer Center’s history.
The UAB Cancer Center was one of the original eight
comprehensive cancer centers established by the
National Cancer Act in 1971 and has been continuously
funded by the National Cancer Institute for 46 years.
The O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center is the
only NCI-designated cancer center in its four-state
region. It has a long history in serving the community
by conducting outreach efforts among underserved
populations in Alabama and Mississippi, and by
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O ’ N E A L CO M PR EH EN S I V E C A N C ER C EN T ER AT UA B
establishing strategic partnerships with community
cancer centers in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and
Mississippi to enhance cancer services in the region.
Similarly, since its founding in 1921, O’Neal Industries
has continued to grow and is now the largest family-
owned steel distributorship in the United States. It
represents a family of six companies with a global reach,
featuring 80 separate business locations, including 15
international facilities on four continents, employing
more than 3,200 people.
“The O’Neal family has built a legacy in Birmingham,
first in the city’s steel industry and now in the city’s
future as a biomedical and technology hub. UAB’s NCI-
designated Comprehensive Cancer Center is among
the pre-eminent cancer centers in the world, and we are
proud and grateful that our cancer center will bear the
O’Neal name,” says Ray L. Watts, M.D., president of UAB.
Collen O’Neal, who lives in the Boston, Massachusetts
area, says she feels a deep pride that the company
and shareholders agreed to make the naming gift.
She says her late husband Kirk O’Neal —grandson of
Kirkman O’Neal and brother of Craft O’Neal — would be
incredibly honored by his family members’ philanthropy
and community support. Kirk O’Neal passed away
in April 2003 after a six month battle with multiple
myeloma.
Members of the O’Neal family toured the Cyclotron Facility, run by Suzanne Lapi, Ph.D. (pictured left).
“The family’s spirit of giving back is a shared value that
goes deep into who each member of this family is,
including Kirk,” she says. “Kirk had such a desire to do
good in the world, and he would feel a deep sense of
pride in the family’s accomplishments to do more good
works.”
The younger generation of the family is also excited to
be part of not only the Cancer Center’s future, but part
of supporting cancer research and care that can help
others.
“As a member of the fourth generation, I feel incredibly
proud and fortunate,” says Kirk Reed Forrester, Kirkman
O’Neal’s great granddaughter. “I also feel a deep sense
of gratitude to my great grandfather who founded the
company and to all the men and women over three
generations who’ve worked at O’Neal and put the
company in a position so that we could make this gift.”
“As a mother I am hopeful that this gift can translate to
breakthroughs in research, better clinical trials and even
to a cure,” Forrester adds. “When I think that my four
young children might live in a world where cancer isn’t
such a pervasive fear, I’m filled with optimism about the
future.”
Left to right: Penny White Page, Margaret Head and Barbara Burton at the press event announcing the naming gift.
UAB.EDU/CANCER
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