The Yale Herald, CT
Oct 27 2007

Repaying Yale Medical School in art

BY MATTHEW KOZLARK
COURTESY YALE.EDU

Outside of the Anlyan Medical Center, a modernist display of metal
trees demonstrate the center’s idea of art as happiness.

John Anlyan was born to Armenian parents in Alexandria, Egypt in
1939, and from an early age carried dreams of studying in the United
States, where he hoped to become a surgeon. But when his overseas
assets were frozen midway through his sophomore year in the chaos of
World War I, Anlyan feared that he would not be able to continue at
the University. Thanks to financial aid, though, Anlyan graduated
from Yale College in 1942, and later from the Yale School of Medicine
in 1945. After earning a master’s degree in enzyme chemistry and
teaching at Yale for two years, he moved with his wife, Betty, to San
Francisco. There, he spent his days performing cancer surgery and his
nights learning 10 languages, reading law, and oil painting.
Throughout the later parts of his life, he hosted Yale presidents and
deans at his opulent bay area house, and would come to be regarded as
one of the university’s chief donors.

Throughout his 50 years in California, Anlyan regularly donated large
sums to Yale. Yale held a special place in Anylan’s family – both of
his younger brothers also graduated from the Yale School of Medicine
with University aid, in 1949 and 1951 respectively, and he felt that
Yale’s generosity had enabled his personal successes. Anlyan would
spend the next 50 years trying to reward Yale for its assistance.

In October of 1991, Anlyan pledged his entire estate – $25 million – to
Yale University, much of which went to the medical school in what was
the largest gift in the school’s history. The medical school used the
donation to spearhead its construction of what is now known as the
Anlyan Center for Medical Research and Education, a
457,000-square-foot complex that now occupies a city-block at the
intersection of Howard Ave. and Gilbert St.

In addition to his financial contributions, Anlyan also donated a
series of his own oil paintings, studies of the Golden Gate Bridge
and surrounding marine life to hang in the anatomy wing. `I think
they’ll make it a happier place,’ Anlyan was quoted as saying in Yale
Medicine.

Today, in addition to the collection of oil paintings, the hallway
outside the dissection room displays drawings, free verse poems,
black and white photographs, and flower-shaped quilts. `Handed,’ a
pencil drawing by a member of the class of 2002 depicting hands
passing a dodecahedron, is meant to symbolize the dual relationships
between student and teacher in the ongoing transfer of human
knowledge – a process that Anylan spent half a century trying to
support for other students at the University.

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress