PHOTOS BY CARTER ALLEN
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Czarina & Humberto Lopez
Humberto & Czarina Lopez Donate $3.5 Million in Endowments to University of Arizona By Tom Leyde In late fall of 2020, scientist Carol Gregorio attended a dinner party. There were more people there than she expected and there was a wrapped package on the table. When she asked what was going on, Czarina M. Lopez told her, “We missed your birthday,” Gregorio recalled. She told the group her birthday is in June. “Just open the box,” Lopez said. Gregorio opened the box. Inside was a white lab coat with her name on it and the surprising news that she was the recipient of the inaugural endowed chair for excellence in cardiovascular research at the University of Arizona’s Sarver Heart Center. The center is part of UArizona’s College of Medicine. The $2 million gift was part of a 132 BizTucson
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$3.5 million endowment for two chairs at UArizona from community leaders Humberto and Czarina Lopez. The other gift $1.5 million established the Dhaliwal-HSLopez Chair in Accounting at the Eller College of Management. It is in honor of Dan Dhaliwal, a 1977 alumnus who was head of the accounting department from 1996 until his death in 2016. The Lopezes are longtime UArizona supporters and volunteers. Humberto Lopez is a UArizona graduate, a CPA and founder of HSL Properties, real estate development and property management firm. He was instrumental in the creation of the Sarver Heart Center. Gregorio said receiving the endowed chair “was the biggest surprise of my
life. Apparently a lot of people knew about this and nobody told me. It’s amazing. They (the Lopezes) just really want to make a difference, and I’m not going to disappoint them. It’s such an honor, it’s such an honor, and you could say I’m speechless still.” “We trust Carol will put the money to good use and help people with problems related to heart disease, which has affected us,” Humberto Lopez said in a university news release. Czarina Lopez received a kidney and heart transplant. “Carol is capable and highly thought of. This addition will help advance her research. We expect her to do great things.” A 25-year UArizona employee, Gregorio has a doctorate degree in molecuwww.BizTucson.com
