Endowed Chair Provides Resources to Deliver on McLean’s Mission

April 20, 2014

Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo want to make a difference in the lives of people with psychiatric illness and in the lives of their families. As longtime supporters of McLean Hospital, they have consistently been strong proponents of the hospital’s dedication to psychiatric care, research and education.

In 2013, in an effort to encourage others to support McLean and to recognize the pivotal role of the president and psychiatrist in chief, the van Otterloos made a generous gift to establish the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Endowed Chair of Psychiatry at McLean Hospital.

Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo
Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo

“McLean is a great organization with a fantastic leader in Scott Rauch,” said Rose-Marie, who served on the McLean Board of Trustees for four years and is currently chair of the McLean National Council. “From the day Scott arrived, he started working on his vision for McLean’s future. Under his leadership, McLean has launched innovative new programs, adopted a divisional structure and risen in status to the number one hospital for psychiatry in the country. Through this endowed chair, we are giving him the resources he needs to continue to implement such positive change.”

According to David S. Barlow, chairman of the McLean Board of Trustees, an endowed chair is one of the highest honors in academic medicine and provides vital, long-term resources to an organization. With the addition of the van Otterloo gift, McLean now has three endowed chairs.

“I am deeply grateful to Eijk and Rose-Marie for their tremendous generosity in making this transformational gift. These resources will very significantly enhance our ability to deliver on McLean’s mission, in perpetuity,” said Rauch.

The van Otterloos first became involved with McLean more than 15 years ago after their son came to the hospital for treatment. Since that time, Rose-Marie and Eijk have been staunch supporters of the hospital as well as active and vocal mental health advocates.

“We have a goal of educating the public and encouraging people to talk about mental illness. It is OK to say that I have a mother with mental illness, that I have an aunt with mental illness, that I have a son with mental illness,” said Rose-Marie.

“Attaching our name to an endowed chair gives a message that our family—like so many others—has been personally affected by mental illness,” added Eijk, who along with his wife, has been a member of McLean’s National Council since its inception in 2002. “We want everyone to know mental illness is an important issue that needs to be openly discussed.”

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