Ray d'Amours MD '81 and Tatiana Von Klan '79

Ray was living in Philadelphia and working at Penn Medicine. He was out for a run through Rittenhouse and passed a couple individuals on the street who were talking about someone who had collapsed in the gym upstairs. Ray overheard this and ran into the gym to find a young man collapsed on the ground next to a treadmill. He immediate began performing CPR until the ambulance arrived. He assisted the medical staff and traveled on the ambulance. He arrived at the hospital where they intubated and shocked the young man who was eventually revived.

The young man happened to be the son-in-law of a well-known orthopedic surgeon in Philadelphia, Dr. Kapp. Dr. Kapp reached out to Ray to thank him for saving the man’s life. He wished to provide a monetary gift. Ray told Dr. Kapp that he would greatly appreciate if the gift was given to either the American Heart Association responsible for teaching him CPR or Stockton where his passion for medicine grew. The gift was designated to Stockton.

Ray and Tatiana then decided to create a scholarship fund with the gift. The decided to name the fund after “Cackleberry Hill”, farm land owned by Professor of Physics Harold (Hal) E. Taylor, a faculty member at Stockton. Professor Taylor had a converted garage on the property where he allowed students to live off campus. Both Ray and Tatianna along with several friends lived on the property while attending school. It was a well-known, special place for many they described. The mentioned this property is nearby to the Olympus Diner in Egg Harbor. Several friends heard about the establishment of the Cackleberry Scholarship, such as David D’Agostino, and contributed as well.

Both Ray and Tatiana received Stockton Scholar Awards (foundation award) and wished to pass on scholarship opportunities like this to students.