O’Neal Industries (ONI) and its shareholders are pleased to announce that they have made a commitment of $30 million to name the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Comprehensive Cancer Center. This gift will enable the Cancer Center to impact the lives of more patients and families than ever through leading-edge research, patient care, education and prevention, and outreach to the region’s most underserved communities. It will strengthen clinical operations, accelerate research and translation of discoveries into clinical trials, enhance recruiting efforts, increase the breadth and depth of UAB programs, and dramatically advance UAB’s mission to eliminate cancer as a major public health problem, locally and globally.
“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,” said Ray L. Watts, M.D., president of UAB. “UAB’s National Cancer Institute-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.”
“We see this gift as an opportunity to give back in a meaningful way to a cause that is important to everyone,” said Craft O’Neal, chairman and CEO of O’Neal Industries and grandson of Kirkman. “We hope the gift will be used in ways that will yield the greatest results, accelerating progress in research, treatment and prevention of cancer and, ultimately, eliminate cancer as a major public health problem.”
“This gift would not be possible without the success of our company, which is due to the contributions of three generations of dedicated employees, loyal customers and supportive supplier partners from around the world, over our nearly 100-year history, who have contributed in positioning us to make this gift,” said O’Neal.
The center will be renamed the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB after it has been formally accepted by The University of Alabama System Board of Trustees at its February meeting.