Wealthy American’s Philanthropy

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 88, 5 July 1927, Page 15

Wealthy American’s Philanthropy

£300,000 For Hospital London is to have a dental, tonsil and adenoid clinic, identical with that oC Rochester. U.S.A. —perhaps the finest in the world —through the generosity of Mr. George Eastman, head of the Kodak Company. He is giving £300,000 for this object, and Dr. Harvey J. Burkhart, director of the Rochester clinic, was recently in London making the necessary arrangements. The building for the new clinic is to be erected within the next two years on the extension site of the Royal Free Hospital, Gray's Inn Road, W.C., and the clinic will be run in association with the hospital. There will be 25 beds for tonsils, adenoids and cleft-palate cases, probably nearly 60 chairs, and the most up-to-date equipment. Details of the scheme are to be discussed at a meeting of the governors of the Royal Free Hospital. In an interview Dr. Burkhart said the project began to mature while Mr. Eastman was on his way to Africa for a shooting trip a year ago. He met Lord Riddell, and to him confided his wish to establish such a clinic in London —where he lived for a number of years—as a mark of his affection and admiration for the British people. At the Rochester Dental Dispensary in the last ten years, added Dr. Burkhart, there had been 800,000 visits by patients and 13,000 tonsil and adenoid operations. A condition of Mr. Eastman s gift is that funds should be provided to maintain the clinic and meet the operating expenses. Mr. Eastman has already given £2,000,000 each to the Boston Institute of Technology, the School of Medicine and Dentistry of Rochester and the Eastman School of Music, and he presented the University of Rochester with a theatre. His gifts total to about £8,000,000.