Abraham and Virginia Weiss Professorship in Cardiology

Gracious, warm, and caring, the Weiss family is notable for their business success and their belief in the power of philanthropy. Devoted to his wife, VIRGINIA, and their family, ABRAHAM WEISS was the consummate gentleman with a ready sense of humor and warm personality that put people immediately at ease. He was born on a homestead in Ashley, North Dakota. After his father died from heart disease at a young age, his mother moved Abe, his three brothers, and four sisters first to New Jersey, then to Baltimore. Abe graduated from Polytechnic Institute and went into the automobile business with one brother. In 1939, the four brothers merged their auto businesses into Weiss Motor Company, one of the country’s largest Ford dealerships. The brothers sold Weiss Motor Company in 1964 and founded Weiss Brothers, a partnership that owned and operated various businesses including apartments, commercial properties, insurance companies, and lumber terminals. Virginia Weiss, who died in 2007, had a deep and longstanding commitment to the communities of Baltimore and Palm Beach. She actively supported a variety of social and cultural organizations, including the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Council of Jewish Women, and The New York Guild for the Blind. Abe and Virginia met through their mutual enjoyment of boating. The Abraham and Virginia Weiss Professorship is the culmination of the family’s commitment to improving health care and their desire to show appreciation for the care they received in the Division of Cardiology at Johns Hopkins. By endowing this professorship, Virginia and Abe could ensure the continued investigation of the science which underlies heart function. The Weiss Professorship honors Abe’s father and family members who have died from heart disease and ensures that future patients and their families will benefit from the laboratory discoveries at Johns Hopkins Medicine. Virginia and Abraham’s interest in and support of Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Division of Cardiology is continued by their children.