“This will be a wonderful addition to our Urology Department and will truly help our efforts to improve men’s health,” said School of Medicine Dean John M. Daly, M.D. “We are deeply grateful to Joan Ballots for this gift.”

“Such generosity supports one of Temple’s highest priorities — building a strong research enterprise that benefits society through the creation and application of new knowledge,” President Ann Weaver Hart said.

Vaughan was the urologist who treated John Ballots and has remained great friends with Joan. Vaughan, now chairman emeritus of the department of urology and the James J. Colt professor of urology at the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University, was recently invited to campus to celebrate this generous gift and give a lecture at the School of Medicine.

“Thankfully there are many women’s health centers in the Philadelphia region, yet disappointingly there are few, if any, men’s health centers in the Delaware Valley, and I’m hoping to change this,” Ballots said.

Over the years, Ballots, a Temple graduate, and her late husband, John, who earned his bachelor’s, master’s and dental degrees from Temple, have been devoted supporters of Temple, and since his death 19 years ago, she has helped underwrite efforts to build partnerships with schools in the community around Temple. A teacher for 35 years in New Canaan, Conn., Ballots appreciates the difference Temple is making in local schools.

The Ballotses have also provided scholarship dollars for students who, like John, want to pursue a career in dentistry. And both the men’s and women’s head basketball coaching positions have been endowed by her generous gifts.

“If my husband had fallen ill today — with today’s research, knowledge and technology — he might have survived. I want to help give this chance to other men suffering from urological cancers,” Ballots said. “All I want to do is make a difference.”