In July 1988, the Bob Hope International Heart Research Institute is renamed the Hope Heart Institute, reflecting the end of an association between the celebrated entertainer and a Seattle medical research center.
Originally called the Reconstructive Cardiovascular Research Center, the institute was founded in 1959 by pioneering heart and vascular surgeon Lester R. Sauvage (1926-2015). It was renamed in honor of Bob Hope in 1980 after the comedian agreed to help support an ambitious plan for its expansion. The goal was to raise $30 million to build, equip, and operate a world-class research institution.
Bob Hope, who died in 2003 at the age of 100, was one of the best known figures in the world during his time. He became associated with the center at the behest of Demerise Drew, a member of the organization’s local board of directors and a longtime friend of Hope and his wife, Delores. Sauvage and the board hoped that Hope’s name and prestige would be worth millions in support. In fact, said Louise Kincaid, the institute’s director of development, "a comprehensive fund-raising and public relations campaign was never successfully marketed, and Bob Hope’s affiliation with the institute didn’t put us into the national limelight" (The Seattle Times, 1988).
By the end of October 1983, only $6 million of the hoped-for $30 million had been raised, and plans for the new building were abandoned. The institute’s existing quarters on Seattle’s First Hill were later expanded and remodeled.
The comedian himself made a generous contribution of $100,000 (a copy of the check still hangs on the wall in Sauvage’s office at the Hope Heart Institute), but he was never actively involved with the organization. His name actually proved to be more of a hindrance than a help in raising money. Some people assumed that the institute was based in Palm Springs, California, where Hope lived, and that the Seattle operation was only a branch. That cut into support from local donors. Others thought that Hope himself, known to be a wealthy man, was financing the institute and thus it didn’t need more help.
In late 1987, Hope asked and the board of directors agreed to terminate the association. It was a "pleasant, amiable separation," Sauvage said in a video interview recorded in 2004. The board decided to retain the name "hope" even without the tie to the entertainer because of its symbolic value. As a spokeswoman for the institute put it at the time, "in research, hope is the greatest gift one can give" (The Seattle Times, 1988).
