Foundation for Physical Therapy Receives Large Bequest From Ohio Couple
With this gift, the Goergenys become Foundation "Legacy Partners," a giving society recognizing members and friends who have included the organization in their estate plans.
"Bequests play a vital role in the Foundation's ability to carry out its mission to fund and publicize physical therapy research, and we are extremely thankful to the Goergenys and all our Legacy Partners who have thought of us when developing their plans," states Foundation Board of Trustees President Barbara Connolly, PT, DPT, EdD, FAPTA. "With this generous bequest, the Foundation will be able to increase both the amount of research and the number of researchers it can fund at a time when the demand for physical therapy and physical therapy research also is dramatically increasing."
Magdalen Goergeny, PT, became a member of the American Physical Therapy Association in 1972, and at the time of her death was a Life Member. Her practice focus was orthopedics. She died in July 2013 at the age of 87, and Emil Goergeny died in September 2013 at age 96.
The Goergenys were natural-born Hungarian citizens. Emil Goergeny served 2 years of mandatory service in the Hungarian Army, and was severely injured losing sight in both eyes when the city of Kassa was bombed during World War II on June 26, 1941. The couple married in 1944, and Magdalen first worked as a grade school teacher, then as a secretary in a chocolate factory.
After Emil Goergeny endured more than 50 surgeries in Austria between 1945 and 1949, the couple moved to Norway when denied reentry into their native Hungary. Magdalen Goergeny enrolled in the Oslo Physio-Therapeutical Institute, a division of the University of Oslo, graduating in 1954. The couple emigrated to the United States a year later, and became naturalized citizens in 1960.
Magdalen Goergeny received her US physical therapy instruction at the New York University College of Medicine and the University of Oregon Medical School, among others. She established a practice in 1971 in Portland, Oregon. The couple eventually settled in Akron, Ohio.
About the Foundation for Physical Therapy
The Foundation for Physical Therapy was established in 1979 as a national, independent nonprofit organization, dedicated to improving the quality and delivery of physical therapy care by providing support for scientifically based and clinically relevant physical therapy research and doctoral scholarships and fellowships. Over the last 35 years, the Foundation has awarded more than $16 million in research grants, fellowships, and post-professional doctoral scholarships to more than 550 emerging scientists. Foundation-funded researchers have gone on to receive an estimated $725 million in external funding from the National Institutes of Health and other sources. Many of today's leading and emerging physical therapist researchers, clinicians, and academicians began their careers with a grant or scholarship from the Foundation.
Contributions to the Foundation for Physical Therapy are tax-deductible and can be made online at Foundation4PT.org, or sent to its headquarters at 1111 North Fairfax Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. For more information, visit www.Foundation4pt.org, email [email protected], or call 800/875-1378.
