Repaying a Scholarship by Starting Another

Endowed gift by legendary School of Medicine alum supports students

Scholar and professor. Writer and editor. Physician and administrator. Athlete and record setter. These are some of the many ways Simeon “Moan” Margolis, MD, has dedicated himself to Johns Hopkins.

For more than 60 years — since setting foot on an azalea-filled campus as a prospective undergraduate student, all the way to writing an extensive review of atherosclerosis in a cramped School of Medicine office as a professor emeritus — Hopkins has been home for Margolis. Today he is building on still another role: Johns Hopkins donor.

Margolis, A&S ’53, Med ’57, ’64 (PhD), has a history of giving, often directed to financial aid, that extends from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the School of Nursing to Hopkins Athletics and the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences. This year he has increased his philanthropy, creating the Margolis Family Endowed Scholarship Fund to support scholarships for students in the School of Medicine.

“I couldn’t have gone to Johns Hopkins without scholarships. I wasn’t thinking at the time that I should ‘repay’ them, but subsequently I realized that was an important thing to do,” says Margolis whose friends and colleagues call him “Moan.” The nickname originated from a mispronunciation of his first name, and then stuck. “I am a constant complainer,” he often jokes.

But there have been no complaints, only quiet praise, of his generosity from those who know Margolis best. “The long-term mission of Johns Hopkins has always been important to Moan,” says John Boitnott, MD, a fellow member of the School of Medicine’s Class of 1957.

Boitnott, professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins, and Margolis were in their first years of medical school when they formed a basketball team with fellow students. Practicing in an old church converted into a gym, the team went on to play — and often beat — other teams from around Maryland. Several of the players had been starters on the Johns Hopkins University varsity team, including Margolis, who played guard and scored 44 points in one game during his senior year in 1953. He was inducted into the Johns Hopkins Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997, and his single-game scoring record stands today.

Off the court Margolis was a pre-med major, soon to be accepted into the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and later to earn a doctorate degree there. He directed his talents toward preventive medicine and in particular to combatting diabetes and vascular disease. “They’re a major cause of death, and it seemed to me, if I was going to specialize in an area, it should be something terribly important.”

Following graduation and two years with the National Institutes of Health, Margolis returned to Johns Hopkins, becoming director of the division of endocrinology and metabolism in the Department of Medicine; he then spent eight years as associate dean for academic affairs for the School of Medicine.

Today he is still considered an endocrine expert on cholesterol and called upon to teach sessions for medical students specializing in endocrinology.

While he was in the dean’s office, Margolis was asked to be editor of the Johns Hopkins Medical Letter: Health After 50, a newsletter focused on healthy aging that he continues to review today. Recognizing a need to provide accurate medical information to an even broader audience, Margolis also wrote a column for the Baltimore Sun for 10 years.

“There is a lot of junk out there, and I wanted to help people pick out the good information.”

Helping people is the essence of the Margolis Family Endowed Scholarship Fund and has great meaning for Margolis. It represents the gratitude he feels for being able to attend and thrive at Johns Hopkins. When his father died during his senior year in high school and his family needed financial support, it came in the form of scholarships for him as an undergraduate and medical student.

The fund also recognizes his many other connections to Johns Hopkins: his beloved late wife, Mary Alice, also worked here, a daughter is a graduate of the School of Nursing, and his grandson is an undergraduate student. Most of all, the Margolis Family Endowed Scholarship Fund, which will endure for generations, benefits the students who carry on the research, medical care, and education that have been hallmarks of its namesake’s illustrious Johns Hopkins career.

Editor’s Note: Simeon “Moan” Margolis, MD, died on May 16, 2022. Read more about his life and legacy.

This story first appeared in the 2014 Spring/Summer Planning Matters.