NEVER SAY CAN’T

REMARKABLE PERSON INSPIRES GIFTS TO TRANSPLANT CHAIR

Can’t was absent from Burt Keenan’s lexicon. When the businessman and competitive sailor was sent home by another hospital in 2005 after being told there was no hope for his failing cancerous liver, he searched for a different answer. “Most people would have given up, but that wasn’t Burt Keenan,” says Al Gonsoulin, Mr. Keenan’s close friend. “Not everybody can do what he did. He was so persistent. He didn’t really know the definition of can’t. It wasn’t in his vocabulary.” Mr. Keenan found his answer — and a second chance at life — through a 2008 liver transplantation that marked one of the first transplants for his form of liver cancer, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma. Mr. Keenan received his transplant at UCLA, where Dr. R. Mark Ghobrial started his career. The physician’s practice moved, as did the patient’s care, to Houston Methodist in March 2008, where Dr. Ghobrial currently serves

Burt Keenan

as the J.C. Walter Jr. Presidential Distinguished Chair and director of the Houston Methodist J.C. Walter Jr. Transplant Center. For years, Mr. Keenan supported Dr. Ghobrial and his team by providing leadership and resources for their innovative work. Following Mr. Keenan’s passing in April 2021, friends and family made gifts to establish a chair honoring his memory: the Carol and Burt Keenan Chair for Excellence in Liver Transplantation Research. When combined with gifts from other contributors, including the Carole Walter and C. James Looke III Transplant Matching Fund, the Keenan Chair will become a transformative endowment in the Sherrie and Alan Conover Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation. Endowed support helps recruit and retain talented physicians and researchers. It also fosters an environment where physician-scientists can impact patient care more swiftly. Those who knew Mr. Keenan share he was keen on supporting transplant research and clinical care efforts based on his own patient experience.

“This chair and the research it will make possible were so important to him,” says Mr. Gonsoulin. “Burt Keenan wanted to give hope to other people.” Mr. Keenan served as an original member of the Liver Center Task Force at Houston Methodist. As generous benefactors of the annual Carol & Burt Keenan Liver Symposium, Mr. Keenan and his wife Carol Keenan also dedicated themselves to educating the community on liver cancer treatment advances. Dr. Ghobrial remembers his patient fondly. “All my transplant patients are inspiring, and Burt Keenan was amazing,” says Dr. Ghobrial. “Not long before his liver was transplanted, he marked over 30 years of significant ocean racing by winning the 2007 Marblehead to Halifax Ocean Race.”

“His spirit and positive attitude were second to none,” Dr. Ghobrial adds. “That is our inspiration for his chair.” Sherrie and Alan Conover

Patient Tribute Gift Energizes Transplant Research

Alan Conover was a man of action. A U.S. Navy veteran, New York state firefighter and ordained church elder with an affinity for train travel, Mr. Conover spent his life energetically serving others. Family and friends say the Sherrie and Alan Conover Chair for Excellence in Transplant Research is a perfect tribute to Mr. Conover. “Alan loved life and people,” says his wife Sherrie Conover. “After his liver transplant saved him, we wanted to help other patients and show our gratitude to Houston Methodist for the outstanding care he received.” In the years following his 2013 liver transplant at the Houston Methodist J.C. Walter Jr. Transplant Center until his passing in 2020, Mr. Conover and his wife made gifts to the Sherrie and Alan Conover Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation. In 2017, the Conovers established the Sherrie and Alan Conover Chair for Excellence in Liver Transplantation. It honors Dr. R. Mark Ghobrial, the J.C. Walter Jr. Presidential Distinguished Chair at Houston Methodist and the director of the Transplant Center. The Sherrie and Alan Conover Chair for Excellence in Transplant Research was established in 2021 to focus on liver transplant research that benefits patients. “The impact that Sherrie and Alan Conover have on liver transplant patients is extraordinary,” says Dr. Ghobrial. “This new chair will recruit the top talent needed to offer next-generation research.”