Selber Heart Fund Gift Aids LSU Medical School

              The Shreveport Times
Farm News
Sunday, Feb. 20, 1972
Oil News
Metropolitan
News
Classified
Section C, Page One
Selber Heart Fund Gift
Aids LSU Medical School
By Margaret Martin
Times Medical Writer
The Mandel C. Selber Sr. Memorial
Heart Fund has donated $18,000 for the
Coronary-Intensive Care Units of Loui-siana.
State University Medical School at
Shreveport.
Announcement is being made today
by the N o r t h w e s t Louisiana Heart
Association President Jack Williamson,
[and the late Mr. Selber's family, his
widow, Mrs. Mandel C. Selber Sr., his
son, Mandel C. Selber Jr., both of
Shreveport, and his daughter, Mrs Arn-old
Miller of Houston, Tex.
The money has been given to LSU to
be used for the proposed units at
Confederate Memorial Medical Center.
Dr. Marion Hargrove Jr., chairman of
the departments of medicine at both
CMMC and the medical school, and T. B.
Lanford, chairman of the Confederate
Board of Directors, said the fund, which
was started when Mr. Selber died in
1967, was the impetus which started
plans for such a unit.
Unit in Two Sections
The memorial unit, according to
Hargrove, will be divided into two
sections, one with four beds for cardiac
patients and the other with 12 beds for
medical intensive care patients.
Such units across the nation are
staffed with well qualified and trained
nurses and other essential personnel.
The architectural firm of Wilson and
Sandifur has presented preliminary plans
to the Confederate Board for the unit and
the total cost has been estimated at
$143,234. The plans were referred to the
Building and Grounds Committee under
the chairmanship of Gen Spencer Hardy,
who said "refinement of the plans is
up to the architects and the doctors."
But he said he expects to have a
recommendation ready for the board at a
future meeting.
After plans are approved by the
board, it will be approximately six
months before the facility will be ready
for use, Hargrove said.
Some $40,000 in electronic monitoring
equipment will be used in the coronary
care section of the unit.
The unit will give perpetual recogni-tion
to the Mandel C. Selber Sr. Heart
Memorial.
"The special fund is being supple-mented
by an additional gift from his
widow, Mrs. Annette Weiss Selber, and
both will serve as a lasting memorial to
Mr. Selber, as well as to the family's
continuing appreciation of and concern
for cardiac research, education, rehabili-tation
and care," said Heart Fund
officials.
Unusual Development Here
Although at such centers as the Texas
Medical Center at Houston, memorials
and gifts are routinely given to state
facilities, it is unusual at Confederate.
Mandel Selber Jr. said his father was
a heart patient 10 years before he died in
Houston, Tex., after undergoing heart
surgery.
After he died, his widow wanted some
type of m e m o r i a l which would be
appropriate for him.
Her immediate reaction, he said,
"was that she wanted to do something
that would advance the treatment of
heart patients in the Shreveport area."
"Dad suffered an aneurysm," Selber
explained, "We couldn't get to Houston
for eight hours because planes didn't
fly."
"He was already in shock by the time
the doctor operated. The operation was a.
technical success, but his kidneys did not
work," he added.
Selber said he hopes his family's
contribution to Confederate through the
medical school will open doors to other
private contributors.
Echoing her son's words, Mrs. Selber
(Times Photo by John A. Moore)
Mandel C. Selber Jr. and Mrs. Mandel C. Selber Sr.
. . . enter area estate gift to develop
said she wanted the money to go to an
agency with a special need, to help local
people.
In recognizing the memorial gift, Har-grove
said the new facility will have a
great impact for specialized treatment of
heart attack and other intensive care
unit (ICU) patients at the medical
center.
"It's establishment meets a great
need at the center in its work of saving
lives. The new ICU will provide a most
w o r t h w h i l e memorial to MandelC.
Selber Sr., himself a heart victim, for it
will significantly help provide for a level
of care for critically ill people that they
would not otherwise receive."
Headed Store in 1960
At the time of his death Mr. Selber was
president of Selber Bros., a position to
which he was elected in 1960.
It was during his presidency that the
first Selber Bros, branch store in the
Pierremont Mall Shopping Center was
opened and subsequently construction of
the third Selber store in Monroe, was
begun.
The store was founded in 1907 by Ms
family and Mr. Mandel Selber Jr. joined
his older brothers in the business in 1914.
He was the son of the late Charles
and Mary Selber. He was a graduate of
the old Shreveport High School and at-tended
the University of Chicago.
At the time of his death he was a
director of the National Retail Merchants
Association, and held active member-ships
in the Shreveport Rotary Club,
Shreveport Petroleum Club, Shreveport
Masonic Lodge No. 115, the Shriners, the
Elks and B'nai Zion Temple of which he
was a former director.