Dedicated to Fighting Woodchucks … and Cancer

Sigrid and Morris Klein

“I am as stingy as they come, a tightwad from birth,” says Sigrid (“Sigi”) Klein, 86, with a laugh. “That’s why I found the option of the charitable gift annuity more interesting. It appealed to the thrifty in me. It is an excellent way of putting my money in a safe place while getting a nice return.”

A charitable gift annuity allows donors to have their cake and eat it too: They can make a gift to charity, and receive an income from it.

Sigi and her late husband, Morris, supported YNHH since 1996, starting with smaller gifts to the annual fund. They have since set up over a dozen generous charitable gift annuities. One is directed for general support; the others are targeted for Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale New Haven.

YNHH has been a part of the Kleins’ story for decades, starting with Morris’ tonsillectomy as a young boy at one of the hospital’s previous incarnations. He doesn’t recall if it was Grace Hospital or New Haven Hospital (they merged in 1945 to become Grace-New Haven Hospital) but he does remember quite clearly that he never got any ice cream.

Sigi, who emigrated from Germany in 1953, was trained as a medical technologist and a nurse. She worked for 31 years at Yale University School of Medicine as an epidemiologist, and at YNHH as a medical technician. “We directed most of the annuity to Smilow Cancer Hospital because a lot of my work centered around cancer. I know how much the money is needed,” she says. She worked in dermatology with skin cancers and in ob/gyn with ovarian cancer. (Part of their Smilow support is directed to the Women’s GYN/ONC Inpatient Unit.)

She is also grateful for the fast and expert treatment Sigi received at YNHH in 2008 for breast cancer. “I don’t consider myself a survivor because it was caught so early. I was in the hospital for one day—I went in at noon on a Tuesday and was home for lunch on Wednesday. A week later, I was mowing my grass and chasing woodchucks away from my broccoli. I never stopped living.” She pauses a moment to think. “Actually, the woodchucks were worse than the surgery.”

Growing up in Germany during World War II, Sigi learned from her parents that philanthropy was a natural part of life. Her father, a physician, offered his services for free to poor families, and the family helped feed many desperate children. “We never really thought about it. It was just what we did,” she says. It’s a way of life she has never forgotten.

Morris, who grew up in New Haven during the grim days of the Depression, knows what it is like to need help. His experience made an indelible impression on him of the importance of helping others.

“We enjoy our connection to the hospital. It was the obvious place to direct our giving,” says Morris. With a mischievous grin, he adds, “Even if I never did get the ice cream.”