A renewed legacy: Tanz family makes new commitment to neurodegenerative disease research
Five years after Mark Tanz’s passing in February 2021, his family has come together to extend his legacy as a generous champion of collaborative neurodegenerative disease research at the University of Toronto.
The Tanz family has committed new annual gifts to the Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases at U of T’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine by making the Centre an official beneficiary of Mark’s estate. Each year, unrestricted support will flow to the Tanz Centre Director’s Fund in support of core priorities.
Mark was instrumental in founding the Tanz Centre in the late 1980s, after witnessing his mother’s own struggles with Alzheimer’s disease. He was convinced that progress in finding solutions to neurodegenerative disease would require a more collaborative approach to research. Together with longtime friends who shared his lived experience with these conditions, Mark helped establish a research hub designed to bring scientists together across disciplines to better understand these largely mysterious, debilitating conditions.
“He believed that if you brought the right people together and gave them the freedom to collaborate, meaningful advances would follow,” said Stuart Tanz, Mark’s son and Chair of the Steering Committee at the Tanz Centre. “We wanted to provide even more sources of stable, long-term funding so researchers had the support they need to plan these ambitious projects.”
That belief shaped the Tanz Centre’s identity — and kicked off Mark’s commitment to its success that he ensured would continue after his passing.
Under the terms of his estate, Mark named seven beneficiaries of a formal trust: his widow, Jackie, and each of his six children. Managed by independent trustees, the estate provides an annuity to support the seven family members during their lifetimes, with the remainder ultimately slated to be directed to the Tanz Centre in support of the research that meant so much to Mark.
Recently, in the lead up to the fifth anniversary of Mark’s passing, the seven family members joined together to unanimously petition the estate’s trustees to allow the Tanz Centre to begin receiving annual distributions immediately as an eighth beneficiary — a decision that required complete agreement.
“Mark would be blown away to see the success of the Tanz Centre today,” says Jackie. “It’s remarkable what these researchers have already achieved, and we want it to thrive and grow.
“He took care of seven of us – of me and six children. And we agreed it is our turn to take care of his legacy.”
The request was recently approved by the estate’s trustees. The first annual contribution was received in early February, with annual gifts to follow each year on the anniversary of Mark Tanz’s passing.
For Jonathan Tanz, Mark’s youngest son, the timing underscores the long view his father took.
Graham Collingridge, director of the Tanz Centre, said the family’s decision reinforces the Centre’s founding principles.
“Unrestricted support through the Director’s Fund is the most precious kind of funding we can receive,” Collingridge said. “It allows us to respond quickly to promising new opportunities as science advances.”
He added that the structure of the gift speaks to a rare depth of commitment.
“This is a legacy gift in the truest sense,” Collingridge said. “It reflects decades of partnership and ensures that Mark’s vision for collaborative, impactful research will continue.”
For the Tanz family, the meaning is both personal and forward-looking.
“We all had one goal in mind,” Stuart Tanz said. “And that goal was to make sure that Mark's legacy would continue to have an oversized impact for generations to come.”
