Sanford “Sandy’ Greenberg titled his 2020 memoir “Hello Darkness, My Old Friend” as a tip of the hat to his college roommate and lifelong friend, singer Art Garfunkel, and a reference to his own blindness.
Now, Greenberg, a successful inventor, investor and entrepreneur who lives in Washington, D.C., wants to help eliminate that darkness for blind people all over the world.
Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Wilmer Eye Institute announced Oct. 14 it has launched the Sanford and Susan Greenberg Center to End Blindness.
In planning the center, Sandy Greenberg, an emeritus trustee of Johns Hopkins Medicine and Johns Hopkins University, said his goal was to enable promising, early-career researchers who lack funding to pursue their ideas to help end blindness “permanently and for everyone.”
Funds for the center will initially create four rising professorships for scientists specializing in research toward eliminating blindness, providing a stable source of funds to cover their salaries and other expenses associated with their research for up to seven years.
“That sort of unrestricted support, coming at such a juncture in a young researcher’s career, is critical,” said Peter McDonnell, M.D., director and William Holland Wilmer Professor of Ophthalmology at the Wilmer Eye Institute. “If you’re a young researcher and you’re competing with established, often very famous senior people who have very large research teams, it’s very challenging. Sandy and Sue’s efforts mean that these brilliant young scientists will get up to speed at an age closer to 30 than 50.”
The center will be created with support from several other philanthropists, including Wilmer board member Allan Holt and his wife, Shelley.
Greenberg, who belongs to Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, lost his sight while a student at Columbia University with Garfunkel in the late 1950s.
“When I woke up newly blinded, I promised God that I would do everything I could for the rest of my life to make sure no one else would go blind,” he said. “It was an insane, adolescent promise, but it stayed with me all this time. The launch of this center means the end of blindness is near.”
In “Hello Darkness, My Old Friend” (Post Hill Press), Greenberg credits Garfunkel – who wrote the book’s introduction — with lifting him out of the deepest pits of despair and helping him begin navigating life as a blind man at just 20 years old.
“He changed all of his habits to help me out,” Greenberg told the JTA news service earlier this year. “He would take me out in the city, walk me to class, help me fix my tape recorder. Most importantly, he would read to me regularly.”
Greenberg plans to work with Wilmer Eye Institute leadership to raise up to $100 million to fully endow the center.
In a ceremony last December streamed worldwide, Sandy and Sue Greenberg awarded $3 million to researchers across the world who are spearheading the drive to end blindness.
“This generous gift will significantly advance our work to develop innovative strategies to treat and prevent blindness,” said Paul B. Rothman, dean of the medical faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine. “We are so grateful to Sandy and Susan Greenberg for their tremendous support, and we especially appreciate their willingness to foster research from younger faculty members.”
In addition to directly funding early-career researchers, the Greenberg Center will provide mentorship and grant-writing resources to help young scientists apply for competitive federal research grants much earlier in their careers than they previously would have.
“Those of us at Wilmer can imagine no more noble goal to which to dedicate our professional lives than to end blindness,” said McDonnell. “The Greenbergs have been instrumental partners in this pursuit.”
In his recent memoir, Sanford Greenberg, chairman of the board of governors of the Johns Hopkins Wilmer Eye Institute, writes about how his friendship with singer Art Garfunkel changed his life.