Spring 2025
By Tom Weisend
Photography by Jessamyn Martin
When retired Naval Lieutenant Commander Edith M. Bowen died in late 2023 in Kittery, Maine, after a short illness, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute was honored with a gift of $518,869 from her estate. This unrestricted gift from the Edith M. Bowen Trust will allow Dana-Farber leaders to apply the funds where they are most needed and most suited.
Bowen first began supporting Dana-Farber after her grand-niece Yvette’s husband, Tom Mercurio, was successfully treated for throat cancer and began fundraising for the Institute as a rider in the Pan-Mass Challenge (PMC), which he has since done 16 times, as have many of his family members. “I committed to myself when I was being treated that if I survived, I would do the PMC if I was able,” he recalled. Tom wrote what Yvette called “very emotional” requests to friends and family to encourage them to support his rides. “Edith talked about the emotional aspect of the letters,” Yvette remembered.
Bowen’s generous gift to Dana-Farber was characteristic of her, said Yvette. “I think of how frugal she was and how much emphasis she always put on her charitable works.” A legacy of that charitable spirit was found in her planned gift to Dana-Farber. Bowen was a native of Springfield, Mass., where in 1950 she graduated from the Springfield College of Nursing. After graduation she joined the United States Navy. As a nurse, she traveled the world and built her career, ultimately retiring from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery. “She reached the top in a man’s world,” Yvette said. Her story is one that spans the 20th century and tells of women’s evolving roles. It also tells of the impact that an individual can make upon the research and care at Dana-Farber and ultimately upon the people around the world as well.