Star Power

In 1957, he followed through on his promise, founding the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities (ALSAC) to raise money to build, operate and maintain St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which opened in Memphis, Tenn., in 1962.

Thomas founded the hospital on four pillars — that it would:

• provide unsurpassed patient care;

• provide unparalleled scientific research;

• be a hospital without walls, taking in children from across the country and around the world, and sharing the knowledge it receives through research with hospitals, medical schools and institutions worldwide; and

• never deny care because of race, religion or a family’s inability to pay.

At a cost of $1.2 million a day, the institution pays for each patient’s medical care, as well as research into the diseases that affect them. It also pays travel expenses for patients and their parents, family lodging while the child is at the hospital, and food and ancillary services such as dental, opthamological and psychological care, to ensure that all the family has to be concerned with is the health of their child.