Strengthening the Community’s Health

Tom Merce

Philanthropists Robert and Cynthia Schneider of Moreland Hills, Ohio, are champions of Northeast Ohio’s businesses and institutions.

“It’s important to us that Northeast Ohio be strong economically and that people choose to stay in the community,” Mr. Schneider says, noting that as a major employer and world-renowned healthcare institution, Cleveland Clinic is critical to achieving these goals. With that motivation, the Schneiders have made a $2.5 million gift to Cleveland Clinic for programs including women’s healthcare.

In appreciation of their gift, the Women’s Health and Breast Pavilion lobby in the Crile Building on Cleveland Clinic’s main campus is being named for the couple.

Their diverse professional backgrounds influenced their gift’s timing and designation.

Mrs. Schneider, a cardiac nurse since 1976, has managed Fairview Hospital’s wellness center in Rocky River, Ohio, and taught nursing classes at Ursuline College in Pepper Pike, Ohio. As a former member of the open-heart surgery team at Fairview Hospital, a Cleveland Clinic hospital, she took care of women whose early heart disease symptoms went undetected.

She also has a patient’s perspective. In her 20s, she overcame cancer at a time when there was not a lot of community education about it, she says. That’s something she hopes she is helping to change as a member of the board of Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Specialized Women’s Health. “With education, we can prevent some of these diseases,” she says.

Mr. Schneider, a businessman since the late 1960s, values Cleveland Clinic’s role in the local economy. When his father passed away in 1967, he took over the then-fledgling business, Patio Enclosures, and led it to national success, creating many jobs in the process. By the time he retired in 2006, the Macedonia, Ohio-based company had 750 employees.

Through his years of running a business and building relationships in the community, he says, he came to appreciate philanthropy’s role in supporting local institutions that create jobs and economic stability.

In making a gift addressing both patient and economic health, the Schneiders say they hope to show their strong commitment to Northeast Ohio.

“With a difficult economy, it’s harder for nonprofit institutions to find support,” Mr. Schneider says. “I think that makes it even more important now.”