For Archie McCray, nothing was more satisfying than watching the Sooners score a winning touchdown or taking a vacation in the Colorado mountains with his wife, Avis. Both provided respite from the countless hours he spent plowing and harvesting wheat and tending cattle.
Farming—a longstanding tradition in northwest Oklahoma—was the way of life this Carmen man learned from his parents. But after watching his father’s memory fade from Alzheimer’s disease, McCray knew he wanted to do more than just farm. He wanted to make a difference. “Archie always said he wished they could find a cure for that disease,” said Gayles Hill, his cousin and longtime neighbor.
After cancer claimed McCray’s own life last December at age 94, he willed $80,000 and land valued at an estimated $250,000 to the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation. In addition to research on Alzheimer’s disease, his gift will help make headway in research on stroke, which took Avis’ life, and breast cancer, a disease that claimed the life of his second wife, Edith.
Discoveries at OMRF have helped create a risk assessment test for breast cancer and an experimental drug for treatment of stroke. Researchers also have pinpointed an enzyme instrumental in the formation of Alzheimer’s disease.
“These diseases took a terrible toll on Archie McCray’s family, but he never gave up hope that scientists could find cures,” said Tia Jones-Bibbs, OMRF’s director of planned giving. “His gift to OMRF will help make that happen.”
McCray grew up during the Great Depression. His parents farmed and saved their money–a lifestyle he followed for nearly a century. “They lived comfortably, but they didn’t spend a lot of money,” Hill said. “He wasn’t an extravagant spender.” In his will, he also left money to the Boy Scouts of America and to other family members.
Over the course of 18 years, McCray gave memorial gifts to OMRF totaling $1,400. Still, his substantial bequest to OMRF came as a surprise to the foundation.
Though McCray never told his cousin why he planned to give to OMRF, Hill has a suspicion. “After his second wife died, many people gave to cancer research in her memory,” she said. “I’m sure then he knew of OMRF very well.
“I think it’s great that he did this,” Hill continued. “When you look back at the progress made in these areas, I know he’d be happy. His donation will really help somebody along the way.”
About OMRF:
Celebrating its 60th birthday in 2006, OMRF (www.omrf.org) is a nonprofit biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding and curing human disease. Its scientists focus on such critical research areas as Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, lupus and cardiovascular disease. It is home to Oklahoma’s only member of the National Academy of Sciences
