Founder’s Day Message

Happy Birthday, Helena Devereux!  Today would be Miss Devereux’s 124^th birthday.

In prior Founder’s Day messages, I have focused on the extraordinary early career of Miss Devereux.   However, Miss Devereux’s father, Arthur Devereux, was also a fascinating character.  He was born in England, went to work in India, and came to the United States specifically to fight against slavery in the Civil War.   According to Miss Devereux’s biographer, after the war Arthur became a senior executive with the new Wells Fargo Pony Express and oversaw much of its early growth.

One hundred and forty years later, in the midst of a terrible financial crisis, Wells Fargo Bank – which grew out of the Pony Express venture – became Devereux’s bank when they acquired  Wachovia Bank.  Devereux has been with the same bank for more than sixty years, but, through acquisitions the bank has had five different names (Philadelphia National, Corestate, First Union, Wachovia, and now Wells Fargo).

It is important to me to remember Devereux’s rich history and deep roots in our communities.  We are living through very unsettling times, but we are doing extraordinarily important work,  and we have the support of the incredible organization which Miss Devereux built with her genius for helping children with special challenges, her business acumen, and her passion for our work.

Thank you for everything you do each day to further Miss Devereux’s work.  Happy Founder’s Day.

 

An Evening to Remember

On Friday night, November 16, the city of brotherly love was host to a special night for Devereux. Old friends from around the country and new friends from businesses in the greater Philadelphia area gathered to help us celebrate.

We were gathered to recognize the 95th anniversary of Devereux, a venerable Philadelphia institution built by education pioneer and humanitarian, Helena T. Devereux. We also celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Institute of Clinical Training and Research (ICTR), another one of her extraordinary visionary ideas. Throughout the evening’s celebrations, I couldn’t help but wonder what Miss Devereux would think, looking out at a sea of 400 faces who were all there to honor the legacy she created.

This legacy is the nation’s largest, non-profit provider of behavioral healthcare in the country for individuals with intellectual disabilities, behavioral disorders and mental illness. We touch more than 15,000 people each year. What a testament to the woman who cared enough about the forgotten children sitting in the back of the classroom!

During the evening, we recognized Devereux’s outstanding employees, recipients from each center, of the Tom Donovan Culture of Caring Award, as well as Margo Volkmer the quality management coordinator for Devereux Texas, who was the 2007 Weaver Falberg Fellowship Promise Award recipient. Margo will be using scholarship money from her award to pursue a master’s degree in healthcare administration.

We honored a very special former ICTR intern and former Devereux chief clinical officer, Dr. Howard Savin, with the first ICTR Distinguished Alumni Award. In addition to his work with Devereux, Dr. Savin was a pioneer of the managed behavioral health industry in the 1980’s.

We also honored some very special friends of Devereux, the Genuardi Family. For eighteen years, the Genuardis have offered Devereux their unwavering support in numerous ways. The prestigious Helena T. Devereux Humanitarian Awards was given to a very special family and very special friends.

The evening was made even more memorable by the hundreds of friends who came to support Devereux. These friends, along with a cadre of generous event sponsors, helped to net $245,000 for the evening. With the generous match provided by the Tom Hays and Skip Genuardi challenge grant, the evening’s grand total was $490,000 raised for Devereux’s Pennsylvania campaign.

I thank all of you for making it a tremendous night for Devereux.