Rooted in Rice, Reaching Beyond

Mary Hale Lovett McLean’s ties to Rice stretch back to its earliest days. As the granddaughter of Rice’s founding president, Edgar Odell Lovett, and Mary Ellen Lovett, she grew up visiting her grandfather in Lovett Hall, looking out from his office at the cypress trees of the Academic Quad. Her father took her to Rice football games, and the university served as the backdrop of her childhood.

Still, when it came time for college, Mary Hale chose the University of Texas at Austin. She wanted, as she recalls, to “strike out and do my own thing.” Escaping the Rice connection proved difficult. Professors occasionally recognized her name and asked if she was related to Rice’s first president. “I learned that I could still be me and be a part of Rice,” she says.

Now 91, Mary Hale is creating her own legacy at Rice through support for Rebecca Richards-Kortum and Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, whose work to improve health outcomes for children in underserved communities resonates deeply with her.

Mary Hale first learned about Richards-Kortum’s work after reading about her MacArthur Fellowship in The Wall Street Journal. She wrote to congratulate her and shared a poignant connection from her own family history. Her grandparents’ young daughter, Ellen Kennedy Lovett, became ill and died in Kentucky in 1906. That family tragedy gave Mary Hale a deeply personal connection to efforts that help babies and children survive and thrive.

“I’ve always been a strong advocate for the disadvantaged,” Mary Hale says. “My main emphasis in giving in Houston is to care for children and babies.”

That commitment led her to establish the Ellen Kennedy Lovett Endowment for Travel Scholarship, named for her young aunt. The fund supports travel for Rice360 students, fellows and researchers, helping them take their work where it is needed and learn directly from the communities they seek to serve.

“I am such a supporter of Rebecca’s work,” Mary Hale says. “I know travel has become so expensive, and I felt that was an area where my fund could make a difference.”

For Mary Hale, the gift is both rooted in Rice’s history and focused firmly on its future. She marvels at how far the university has come since her childhood visits to Lovett Hall. “I think it’s fabulous,” she says.

And she encourages others to become part of that progress. “I hope others will join me in supporting Rice360 to make a difference in the health and lives of children in Houston and beyond.”

Accelerate the Vision

To learn more about supporting the work of Rice360 Institute for Global Health Technologies, contact Emily Bull, director of development, Rice360, at 713-348-4279 or emily.t.bull@rice.edu.