When his daughter, Lori Wieman-Vasquez, died in 2004 following a 12-yea battle with brain cancer, David “Larry” Wieman lost his best friend and only child. To honor her, and to support the research of the neurosurgeon who fought to save her life, the retired Sacramento civil engineer has created a new endowment in brain cancer research at UC Davis Cancer Center.

Wieman donated $11,000 — a significant share of his life’s savings — to the UC Davis School of Medicine’s Department of Neurological Surgery to establish an endowment fund in Lori’s name to support brain tumor research.

“The endowment will be something that will continue to grow and be used so that everyone can remember Lori,” said Wieman, who spent his career with the California Department of Transportation and continues to serve as a member of the Board of Directors of the California Transportation Foundation.

James Boggan, the UC Davis neurosurgeon who diagnosed Vasquez’s glioblastoma and saw her through multiple surgeries and bouts of radiation over the course of her long illness, has pledged to help build the endowment.

“I am personally committed to finding matching funds for this research, because it is so important to Larry and honors a woman who touched all of us with her courage and enthusiasm for life,” said Boggan, professor and vice chair of the Department of Neurological Surgery.

Lori married her high school sweetheart and had a son, Fabian, and daughter, Angela. In 1992, when Fabian and Angela were 14 and 11, Lori was diagnosed with brain cancer.

Under Boggan’s care, the young mother underwent surgery and a round of radiation that provided a six-year remission from the disease. A second surgery and course of radiation in 1998 kept the tumor in check for another three years. Chemotherapy in 2002 and a third surgery in 2003 each bought her an additional year.

Lori Wieman-Vasquez died on Feb. 29, 2004, on a final trip to the ocean, her dad and daughter at her bedside. Following a memorial service at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Sacramento, her ashes were scattered outside the Golden Gate, as was her wish.

Posted on November 17, 2006 08:15 AM