Lominack family establishes $1M medical scholarship

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Retired Greenville Health System cardiologist Ed Lominack learned a family secret on his 75^th birthday.

For a year, the family kept him in the dark about a $1 million scholarship in his name to the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville, revealing the secret at a surprise birthday party.

The Lominack Family Scholarship will be initially awarded to a student entering medical school in 2020. The gift honors Lominack’s nearly 50 years of practice in cardiology, his influence shaping the lives and careers of hundreds of medical professionals and his contributions to the Upstate and Greenville Health System, according to a news release.

“I am so relieved that tonight is finally here even though I admittedly broke one of our solemn vows of no surprise birthday parties,” his wife, Almena “Sister” Lominack, said in the release. “But what better way to confirm Ed’s and my belief and optimism in the future of medicine than to say to a deserving young student, ‘Come to the USC School of Medicine Greenville, embrace the profession and accept our gift.’”

Lominack was a young doctor who moved to Greenville with his wife to repair hearts and raise their three growing boys 44 years before his retirement. He graduated from the Medical University of South Carolina with cardiology training at Emory University and London’s Hammersmith Hospital.

“I know what Ed’s parents sacrificed so that he could finish medical school with no debt and the costs today so greatly outweigh the means for many students,” his wife said, in the release. “Students who would make extraordinary doctors may simply not be able to afford the cost of med school and so choose another career. We want to help bridge that gap and give back, following the example of so many other members in our local medical community who’ve likewise given back.”

“This gives us an opportunity to ‘pay it forward’ and mentor a young person who has the passion and desire to serve others in the medical field,” Dr. Lominack said in the release. “It was a memorable birthday for me.”

The USC School of Medicine Greenville, a joint effort between USC and GHS, received more than 3,700 applications for only 100 spots for the Class of 2022. USC and GHS recognized the need for scholarship support during the initial planning for the Greenville medical school, committing in perpetuity 10% of tuition dollars to support scholarships. But that 10% set-aside provides only half of the scholarship dollars necessary to remain adequately competitive, thus requiring a private or community match, according to the news release.

Approximately $20 million has been committed or given in scholarship support since the Greenville medical school launched its charter class in 2012. Of this, $14 million is endowed, making the school a little over one-quarter of the way toward its goal of a $50 million scholarship endowment.

“We are blessed to have such strong community support from people like Ed and Sister Lominack who are stepping forward to support medical student scholarship in the hopes of strengthening the physician base in South Carolina and improving the health of our citizens,” the medical school’s founding dean, Jerry Youkey, M.D., said in the news release. “It is truly an investment in the well-being of our children and our grandchildren.”

Students at the Greenville medical school receive clinical training across all four years of medical school, breaking from traditional curricula that have two years of lecture followed by two years of clinical training. The curriculum has drawn national attention for fostering student engagement in community-based health problems and in prevention and wellness through activities associated with lifestyle medicine.