CLEVELAND – University Hospitals (UH) has received a $1 million gift from Hoyt C. Murray and family in honor of his wife Gail S. Murray, Ph.D., CCC-A, a nationally renowned audiologist whose professional service spans 25 years at UH Case Medical Center and UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital. The gift will help fund professional audiology education through a biennial symposium, further developing and expanding on the programs at UH and Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.

“This generous gift speaks to the level of dedication that Dr. Murray has put forth in her work for over 25 years,” said James Arnold, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at UH Case Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.  “As a recognized leader in her field, she has been instrumental in developing treatment and management techniques for hearing-impaired adults and children for more than two decades.”

Dr. Murray is a prominent expert in audiology with an emphasis in developmentally challenged children, central auditory processing, and cochlear implantation. She serves as Director of Audiology Services at UH Case Medical Center and is the Clinical Director of its Cochlear Implant Program. She also serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Pediatrics.

“I am just so proud of Gail and the work that she has accomplished at University Hospitals,” said Mr. Murray. “Through her dedication to her field, she has truly made a difference in the lives of countless patients with hearing impairments. I wanted to honor her for all the outstanding work she has contributed during the course of her career and I believe we were able to do that through this gift.”

Hoyt Murray owns his own insurance company, H.C. Murray Corp. Mr. Murray is a certified financial consultant (ChFC) and a Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU) who specializes in working with business owners and professionals for more than 25 years.

UH is a major center for audiology, offering hope and help to hearing-impaired patients of all ages. The Cochlear Implant Program is recognized as one of the nation’s best. Dr. Murray and the cochlear implant team, which includes programming audiologists, an aural rehabilitation audiologist, a speech-language pathologist, a geneticist, and a learning specialist, play integral roles in the implantation of these life-changing devices in patients from 12 months old to over 80 years old.

“Dr. Murray has worked diligently to advance our cochlear implant program to the level that it is today,” said Cliff Megerian, MD, Vice Chairman of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Surgical Director of the Cochlear Implant Program at UH. “Our program has grown by leaps and bounds over the last 25 years to national recognition and that is a direct result of her work.”

Hearing loss is a serious health concern in the United States. More than two million people in the U.S. are severely or profoundly deaf, having 90 percent hearing loss in both ears. Some are pre-lingually deaf, having had no hearing from birth or losing their hearing before developing speech and language. Research aimed at understanding the basic mechanisms of deafness and developing new treatments is a major focus of the Departments of Audiology and Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at UH Case Medical Center.