Roanoke institute receives $1 million gift

Published September 13, 2019 by Robert Powell, III

The William Jacob and Barbara Boyle Lemon family of Roanoke has donated $1 million to Roanoke's Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, which is undergoing a major expansion.

The institute says the gift will help it to recruit and retain new researchers.

Begun in 2010 as a joint venture of Virginia Tech and Carilion Clinic, the institute expects to open a new a 140,000-square-foot new building next fall. The building will house about 400 additional scientists and staff by 2027. Recruitment for new research teams began this summer.

The facility’s core research areas include immunology, cancer, cardiovascular science, and neuroscience.

William J. Lemon is a Roanoke lawyer and philanthropist. The gift was made on behalf of him, his late wife, Barbara, and their children, Sarah Ludwig, Tucker Lemon and Stephen Lemon.

The expansion project already has benefited from a $50 million gift from another Roanoke family, which was the largest gift ever received by Virginia Tech. That donation, announced in December, came from the Horace G. Fralin Charitable Trust and Heywood and Cynthia Fralin.