FOUNDATION FOR PHYSICAL THERAPY RECEIVES LARGE BEQUEST FROM OHIO COUPLE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ALEXANDRIA, VA, (January 27, 2015) – The Foundation for Physical Therapy is pleased to announce a gift of $1.58 million from the estate of Magdalen and Emil Goergeny of Akron, Ohio. The bequest is one of the largest planned gifts ever received by the Foundation. Proceeds from the Goergeny estate will be used to support the Foundation’s research programs – supporting the profession in which Magdalen Goergeny served.

With this gift, the Goergenys become Foundation “Legacy Partners,” a giving society recognizing members and friends who have included the organization in their estate plans.

“Bequests play a vital role in the Foundation’s ability to carry out its mission to fund and publicize physical therapy research, and we are extremely thankful to the Goergenys and all our Legacy Partners who have thought of us when developing their plans,” states Foundation Board of Trustees President Barbara Connolly, PT, DPT, EdD, FAPTA. “With this generous bequest, the Foundation will be able to increase both the amount of research and the number of researchers it can fund at a time when the demand for physical therapy and physical therapy research also is dramatically increasing.”

Magdalen Goergeny, PT, became a member of the American Physical Therapy Association in 1972, and at the time of her death was a Life Member. Her practice focus was orthopedics. She died in July 2013 at the age of 87, and Emil Goergeny died in September 2013 at age 96.

The Goergenys were natural-born Hungarian citizens. Emil Goergeny served 2 years of mandatory service in the Hungarian Army, and was severely injured losing sight in both eyes when the city of Kassa was bombed during World War II on June 26, 1941. The couple married in 1944, and Magdalen first worked as a grade school teacher, then as a secretary in a chocolate factory.

After Emil Goergeny endured more than 50 surgeries in Austria between 1945 and 1949, the couple moved to Norway when denied reentry into their native Hungary. Magdalen Goergeny enrolled in the Oslo Physio-Therapeutical Institute, a division of the University of Oslo, graduating in 1954. The couple emigrated to the United States a year later, and became naturalized citizens in 1960.

Magdalen Goergeny received her US physical therapy instruction at the New York University College of Medicine and the University of Oregon Medical School, among others. She established a practice in 1971 in Portland, Oregon. The couple eventually settled in Akron, Ohio.

The Foundation for Physical Therapy was established in 1979 as a national, independent nonprofit organization to fund physical therapy research to optimize health and movement. Since its inception, the Foundation has awarded more than $17 million in research grants, fellowships and scholarships. Many of today’s leading physical therapy researchers, clinicians, and academicians began their careers with this support. Foundation-funded researchers have gone on to secure more than $824 million in follow-on funding.

To donate or learn more, visit www.Foundation4pt.org or call 800/875-13678.

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