Charles Fipke: A Gem of a Friend and Philanthropist

Moved by the suffering of a long-time friend, and wanting to support UBC’s efforts to understand and treat Alzheimer’s disease, famed geologist and UBC alumnus Charles Fipke pledged $3 million to endow a professorship dedicated to Alzheimer’s research and $600,000 to outfit the dedicated lab at the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health (a partnership UBC Faculty of Medicine and Vancouver Coastal Health). Dr. Haakon Nygaard, the new Fipke Professor in Alzheimer’s Research, joins the Faculty of Medicine from the Yale School of Medicine.

Fipke also pledged $5.5 million towards cutting-edge brain-imagining technology: a PET-MRI machine (positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging combined). As a resident of Kelowna, Fipke has previously given $8.7 million to UBC, mostly for infrastructure and equipment for the UBC Okanagan campus.

Fipke, a friend to Bill Bennett, was saddened to hear of the former premier of BC being stricken with Alzheimer’s which, in turn, inspired Fipke to contribute to Alzheimer’s research. “I was stunned to learn about Bill Bennett’s illness,” says Fipke. “Yet another great mind stricken by Alzheimer’s. I want to do anything I can to help UBC’s researchers find a cure.”