Everett & Marjorie Kovler Professorship in Pancreas Cancer Research

EVERETT KOVLER was a Chicago area businessman, president of the Jim Beam Bourbon Company. Before his retirement in the mid-1970s, Mr. Kovler was involved in cancer-fighting efforts, serving as president of the Midwest advisory board of the Eleanor Roosevelt Cancer Foundation in 1960. He later spearheaded the establishment of the Marjorie B. Kovler Viral Oncology Laboratories at the University of Chicago.

 

MARJORIE B. KOVLER was a Chicago area businesswoman who created the Kovler Art Gallery, specializing in prints, an art form not widely appreciated or valued at that time.

Her philanthropic pursuits included being a very early advocate for civil rights for African American citizens. Such efforts led her to participate in the historic 1963 March on Washington, as well as numerous local protests. Mrs. Kovler was a recipient of the Thurgood Marshall Award from the NAACP.

Mrs. Kovler died from pancreas cancer in 1970, at the age of 49.