Pediatrician Lawrence “Larry” Pakula says philanthropy was in the genes for his late wife, Sheila Sutland Pakula—as it is for him. Indeed, for nearly 30 years, members of the Sutland/Pakula family have been generous supporters of Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and, specifically, its neonatology program.
“We were both raised with the idea of being charitable and giving,” says Larry, an associate professor emeritus of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins and co-founder of Pavilion Pediatrics in Lutherville.
His most recent gifts carry on a long legacy of supporting the care of children, particularly newborns, by establishing the Sheila Sutland Pakula Professorship for Maternal and Newborn Health in memory of his wife, who died in November 2016, and providing research dollars through the Lawrence C. Pakula, M.D. Innovation Award Fund. Additional monies will fund expansion of the Sutland/Pakula Family Newborn Critical Care Center, named for the family in 2012.
Sheila grew up as an only child, but her mother, Josephine Sutland, had at least five other pregnancies that resulted in miscarriage, Larry says. Josephine and her husband, Frank, a dentist in Troy, New York, who established a chain of clinics that treated children and the disabled, would talk to Larry and his father (also a pediatrician) about work in neonatology. Along the way, the Sutlands befriended Frank Oski, former chair of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins, and began donating to the Children’s Center.
The Pakula family’s ties to Johns Hopkins began in the 1950s when Larry did his internship and residency in pediatrics here, and his first two children were born at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Now 85, Larry continues to take part in The Hospital for Consumptives of Maryland (Eudowood) Foundation Board, the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center Council and the board of the Robert Garrett Fund for the Surgical Treatment of Children. Larry is also a past chairman and current board and committee member at Mount Washington Pediatric Hospital.
Larry and Sheila later established a professorship in pediatric genetics in memory of her father and one in newborn medicine in memory of her mother. They also created an endowment for neonatal research and a fund for pediatric critical care medicine, among making other donations. Sheila was an active member of the Women’s Board at Johns Hopkins and she also served on the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center Council.
“The Pakula family has truly transformed children’s lives,” says Tina Cheng, co-director of the Children’s Center. “Every day I walk past the neonatal intensive care unit and I know our families are being cared for in the best possible place by the best experts. I’m honored I was able to know Sheila and understand her passion for, and commitment to, infant health.”
Adds Children’s Center co-director David Hackam, “Larry means so much to us here at the Children’s Center and to me personally. The legacy of his family is deeply meaningful here, and their philanthropy has touched generations of families and clinicians. I can’t thank him and his entire family enough for their generosity and partnership.”