Kisers honored for $17.2 million gift to children's hospital

On Saturday Dec. 4, Duke University Children’s Hospital honored a $17.2 million gift from the late Dr. Glenn and Muriel Kiser.

According to an article from the Salisbury Post, this donation marks the largest gift ever to the school’s pediatrics department, and especially beneficial at a time when federal funding for research is diminishing.

The money will be put toward funding three endowed professorships in pediatrics and establishing the Kiser Scholars Program to recruit pediatric investigators and support faculty research.

Kiser graduated from Duke University Medical School in 1941, and began a pediatrics practice in Salisbury in 1948. He was named chief of pediatrics at Rowan Regional Medical Center in 1955 and went on to serve as chief of staff.

From his interest in developing child-safe medicines, Kiser helped in the creation of the childproof cap now common in almost all medication containers.

Muriel Kiser worked 30 years as an elementary school teacher. She died at age 90 in 2007. Glenn Kiser died in May 2009 at the age of 91.