National Jewish Receives Mayor's Millennium Award

Mayor Wellington E. Webb and the Denver Millennium Commission have honored Frances Wisebart Jacobs and National Jewish Medical and Research Center for "significant and lasting contributions to the City of Denver since its founding 142 years ago." Jacobs and National Jewish will receive one of only two Mayor's Millennium Awards granted to institutions and benefactors in Denver.

In the late 1880's, Jacobs was the leading force behind efforts to build a hospital for indigent tuberculosis patients in Denver. The hospital, which was to become National Jewish, was built in 1893 and opened in 1899. Tragically, Jacobs died in 1892 without seeing the hospital open.

The Mayor's Millennium Awards were created to honor those individuals and organizations that have made important contributions to Denver's history. Out of more than 200 nominations considered by the Millennium Commission, awards were given to 17 individuals and organizations at a special ceremony on Dec. 6, 2000 at the Buell Theater. The full list of honorees follows.

Institutions and Benefactors:

• Frances Wisebart Jacobs/ National Jewish Medical and Research Center
• Helen G. Bonfils/Donald R. Seawell/ The Denver Center for the Performing Arts

Denver's original inhabitants:

• Little Raven and the Great Peace Chiefs: Leaders of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations

Dynamic individuals:

• Governor Ralph Carr; George Cranmer; Dana Crawford; Bill Daniels; Barney Ford; Emily Griffith; Rachel B. Noel; Mayor Federico Peña; Helen Peterson; Daniel L. Ritchie; Dr. Florence Sabin; Mayor Robert Speer; Bernard Valdez; Minoru Yasui

For more information on the Mayor's Millennium Awards, visit: www.denvergov.org, or contact Jim Carpenter, Director of Public Affairs, National Jewish Medical and Research Center, 303-398-1079, or email at carpenterj@njc.org.

The Mayor and Commission provided the following information about Jacobs and National Jewish as part of the award.

Honoree:

• Frances Wisebart Jacobs (b. Harrodsville, Ky. 1843 d. Denver, 1892) /National Jewish Medical and Research Center

Frances Wisebart, Colorado's Mother of Charities, founded National Jewish Hospital, one of America's leading centers for treating lung disease. She also helped establish what has become the United Way. One of Denver's greatest civic benefactors and boosters married Abraham Jacobs and moved to Central City where they opened a clothing store. In 1870 the Jacobs moved to Denver, where he became a successful merchant and she presided over the Hebrew Benevolent Society established in 1872.

Extending her work beyond the Jewish Community, she helped organize the Ladies Relief Society in 1874. In 1887 she helped establish the Charity Organization Society, forerunner of the Denver Community Chest, which much later became the Denver United Way. Her civic benefactions included a sanatorium to treat tuberculosis, America's number one killer at that time. Jacobs pleaded with businesspersons, political leaders, and newspaper editors to support the Jewish Hospital Association, incorporated in 1890.

Two years later the Frances Jacobs Hospital was constructed at East Colfax Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, now nationally famous as National Jewish Medical and Research Center. Despite doctor's warnings, Francis continued to make home visits, taking health care into Denver's poorest neighborhoods, where she contracted a fatal disease in 1892.

Jacobs, one of 16 Colorado pioneers memorialized in a stained glass window at the state capitol building, once said: "God never made a pauper in the world, children come into the world and conditions and surroundings make them either princes or paupers."

National Jewish Medical and Research Center is known worldwide for treatment of patients with respiratory, immune and allergic disorders, and for groundbreaking medical research. Founded in 1899 as a hospital for tuberculosis (TB) patients, National Jewish enters the 21st century as the only facility in the world dedicated exclusively to these disorders. For four years in a row, U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Hospitals" ranked National Jewish number one in the nation for excellence in treating respiratory diseases, and first in reputation among pulmonary specialists.

American Health magazine termed National Jewish one of the finest U. S. hospitals in allergy, immunology and pulmonology for both adult and pediatric patients. The Institute for Science and Medicine rated National Jewish among the top 10 independent biomedical research institutions-of any kind-in the world, and the only one that also provides patient care. National Jewish was ranked as one of the three most influential research institutions for immunology and as the number one private immunology research institution in the world.