Grace Heffernan Arnold

Grace Heffernan Arnold was born in Port Townsend, Washington and moved to Seattle in the early 1900's. After her marriage to Lawrence M. Arnold, she became a tireless philanthropist in the Seattle community. Among her many interests, she was a founder of the Pacific Northwest Research Foundation, an organization dedicated to medical research. After her death from cancer, her husband and her son, Robert M. Arnold, donated a library to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in memory of her and her other son, Lawrence H. Arnold, who also died of cancer.

In 1975, the Grace Heffernan Arnold Guild was formed in memory of Grace Heffernan Arnold. The guild is one of many volunteer groups supporting the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Beginning in 1975 with a small dinner party, the guild's efforts slowly evolved into what today is the Hutch Holiday Gala, the Hutchinson Center's largest annual fund-raising event and one of the largest of its kind in the country. Now in its 29th year, the guild has raised more than $36.5 million for the following research and patient/family programs: human biology, breast cancer, pediatric oncology, prostate cancer, the Hutch School, and Public Health Sciences.