Family former Muskogee resident donates $1M to cancer research

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Beth Nickel spoke from Napa Valley, Calif., where her late husband was a respected vintner and where she has helped raise $1 million for cancer research.



"Loved the fact that growing up in Muskogee he got a solid Christian upbringing," she said. "He always remembered his years there when he and his brother John worked at the Greenleaf Nursery (in Tahlequah)."



Gil Nickel, proprietor of Napa Valleys Far Niente, Nickel & Nickel and Dolce wineries, died in 2003 of melanoma.



The V Foundation-Gil Nickel Fellowship in Melanoma Research will be established by UCLAs Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, funded by the money raised by Beth Nickel and the V Foundation. The fellowship will train a new generation of promising young scientists who will go on to conduct leading-edge melanoma research at UCLA and other top institutions nationwide.



The scientists will work on the cancer centers most innovative, interdisciplinary melanoma research projects; in particular, projects that will translate laboratory breakthroughs into pre-clinical and clinical testing of novel treatments for patients, said Dr. Judith C. Gasson, director of the cancer center.



Gil and Beths son Jeremy Nickel, 29, said his fathers roots were an important part of who he was.



"He was famous for his Oklahoma charm and his Southern drawl," Jeremy said. "He was a loving father, and he would have really loved knowing what this has done for science and medicine."



Beth, who was born and raised in Bartlesville, said she and Gil had always supported lot of charities.



"I had worked with the folks from V Foundation for several years prior to Gils diagnosis," she said. "When he got sick they created an award for courage for Gil. After he died they came to me and wondered if I was interested in partnering with them."



Beth worked on the project for 1 1/2 years. She laughingly described her fund-raising work as "making all my friends give me money."



Beth said she and her family and friends are very excited that their fund-raising work may help find a cure for melanoma, and spare other families their loss and grief.



"He was one-of-a-kind, brilliant guy," she said. "After Muskogee, he was a ministerial student, then became a physics and math major at Oklahoma State University. He became a guided missile analyst but decided life in a lab coat wasnt going to suit him. So he went back (to Oklahoma) and built up Greenleaf Nursery."



Melanoma will strike more than 62,000 Americans this year alone, according to the American Cancer Society. About 8,000 will die from the disease.



The V Foundation for Cancer Research was founded in 1993. The foundation, which has received a top 4-star rating from Charity Navigator for four consecutive years, awards grants through a competitive awards process strictly supervised by a scientific review committee.



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