Celebrity
Beloved ’70s TV Icon Makes $10 Million Gift in Honor of Her Late Husband
Lynda Carter donated $10 million to Johns Hopkins Hospital through her family foundation, honoring her late husband, Robert Altman.
A beloved ’70s television star recently made a jaw-dropping donation that will change people’s lives. Wonder Woman star Lynda Carter facilitated a $10 million gift to Johns Hopkins Hospital from the Robert and Lynda Carter Altman Family Foundation.
As Johns Hopkins University detailed, the endowment went to the James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute to create the Robert Altman Division of Minimally Invasive Surgery.
The gift will be used to “accelerate ongoing advancements in education, surgical training and care at the Brady Urological Institute. That includes utilizing 3D printers that “create lifelike organs,” as well as funding the increased use of robotic surgery.
The director of the Brady Urological Institute, Mohammad Allaf, M.D., explained that the gift from Carter’s foundation allows them to invest in people and infrastructure that will help develop and implement additional minimally invasive treatments.
Allaf worked with Carter and Altman after Altman was diagnosed with prostate cancer. During Altman’s medical care at Johns Hopkins, he and Allaf developed a deep personal friendship.
Carter said she knows her husband would be “so happy to help push this technology and the vision of Dr. Allaf into the future.” She also noted she was very excited to see how the new division helps develop a new generation of “wonder women” surgeons.
Altman and Carter were married for 37 years, noted People. He died in February 2021 after a battle with myelofibrosis, which is a rare type of blood cancer.
In February 2021, Carter announced her husband’s death in an Instagram post. She wrote, “Robert is the love of my life and he always will be.”
Carter also shared, “We shared the passion I hope everyone is lucky enough to experience in their lifetime. We protected each other and were each other’s champions always.”
According to ProPublica, the Robert and Lynda Carter Altman Family Foundation had an estimated $228 million in assets as of 2024.
In September 2022, the foundation established a fund for the City of Hope and Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) that would go toward improving the diagnosis and treatment of myelofibrosis, the type of cancer Altman had.
In addition, in March, the foundation also donated a gift of $10 million to MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. The gift established the Robert A. Altman Center for Surgical Education and will be used to expand surgical training and techniques.
