Remembering key American Heart Association contributors Dr. Mary Jane Jesse, Edmund Hoffman

In the introduction to "The American Heart Association at 100: A Century of Pioneers and Heroes," CEO Nancy Brown dedicates the book to the countless people whose contributions made possible the organization's transformative work. The ensuing pages celebrated many volunteer leaders whose efforts left a lasting impact.

Two more whose stories are worth spotlighting are former volunteer president Dr. Mary Jane Jesse and former national board member Edmund Hoffman.

"Ed and Mary Jane got things done that helped keep our organization going forward," said Dudley Hafner, who worked with both during his tenure as chief executive officer of the American Heart Association from 1980-1997. "I consider both of them heroes."

Dr. Mary Jane Jesse

A native of Kentucky, Mary Jane Jesse was well into a successful career as a publicist in New York when she decided to become a doctor.

In 1959, at age 41, she graduated from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Jesse went on to specialize in both pediatrics and cardiology, then taught pediatric cardiology at the University of Miami Medical School.

In 1977, the National Institutes of Health named her director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Division of Heart and Vascular Disease. She was the first woman to hold that position.

From 1982-83, she served as the volunteer president of the American Heart Association. A year after her term ended, the Association lured her from academia with the staff role of Senior Vice President for Scientific Affairs.

“As president, she just won everyone over,” Hafner said. “She was an angel – very, very polite. She didn’t raise her voice. Her persuasion came at a low key.”

She put that skill to good use. Hafner recalled that when members of the Association’s scientific councils were skeptical about the growing idea of directed research – which is when a donor’s funds are targeted for a specific focus – Jesse persuaded them “that it could be very, very useful.”

Then she proved it in a way that not only continues to benefit the organization but also does so to an extent she hardly could’ve imagined.

In 1984, leaders of an organization wanting to push forward cardiovascular research reached out to Hafner for guidance. He recommended they speak to Jesse.

She then spoke to Dr. Howard E. Morgan, who would go on to become Association president from 1987-88.

“They talked about what if those donors got involved with directed research,” Hafner said.

Sure enough, leaders of the other organization decided that instead of starting their own funding, they would support the American Heart Association via directed research. And with that, the relationship between the Henrietta B. and Frederick H. Bugher Foundation and the American Heart Association was off and running.

It still is. The Bugher Foundation has donated more than $63 million to the Association, making it among the most generous donors in our organization’s history. With a large chunk of those donations going toward brain health, the Bugher Foundation is the top funder of stroke research in American Heart Association history.

Jesse retired from the Association in 1988. She died in 2001 at age 83.

Edmund Hoffman

Ed Hoffman was tall and gregarious with a booming voice. When he walked into a room, everyone knew it – and, soon, they were usually laughing with him.

His people skills surely helped him in business. While he held various roles in the food and drink industry in Dallas starting in the 1950s, his most notable was starting what became the nation’s fifth-largest Coca-Cola bottler.

Those same people skills served him well as a philanthropist.

Hoffman supported the local operations of the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society back in the days when both groups relied on funding from the United Way. He helped each organization reshape those relationships.

Hafner was working for the cancer group when he met Hoffman. That was the mid-1960s. By decade’s end, they were working together at the American Heart Association. Together, they helped the Texas affiliate surge from one of the lowest performers to one of the best.

That success paid off for each of them. Hoffman went from chair of the Dallas board and the Texas board to joining the national board, while Hafner went from director of the Texas affiliate to becoming national CEO.

“Ed was a leader – he made things happen,” Hafner said.

While Hafner was still running the Texas office, a movement began to relocate the national headquarters out of New York. Hoffman helped make Dallas the destination.

The linchpin was a 99-year lease for $1 per year for the rental of a newly constructed facility on land owned by Presbyterian Hospital. The chair of the hospital board behind that effort was Toddy Lee Wynne, an oilman and real estate developer who was a patient of the Association’s then-president, Dr. Carleton Chapman, and also a good friend of Hoffman. (Other notable businessman-philanthropists in Hoffman’s social circle included Herman Lay, of potato chip fame, and real estate magnate Trammell Crow Sr.)

“Ed told a host of people, ‘We need to make this happen,’” Hafner said. “He laid out the vision and got the agreement that people would support the organization in Dallas.”

Hoffman received the Gold Heart Award in 1999. In the program, the write-up mentioned that he “brought together the land and building contributions that made the National Center’s move from New York City to Dallas possible. Later he solicited donations and made a generous contribution himself to expand the National Center campus with the Science Center building.”

Hoffman died in 2006 at age 84.