Tulane School of Medicine Alumni & Friends

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December 2019


                  Tulane University – School of Medicine Alumni & Friends

       Family Creates Scholarship Fund in Memory of Remarkable Newcomb Grad




Theirs was a romance for the ages. Ira Udell was a young medical student at Tulane University
when he saw a beautiful young woman across the room at Rosh Hashanah services. Immediately
smitten, he asked his roommate to help him uncover her identity.

Two weeks later, Ira had her name (Allyn Sue Padawer) and phone number. He overcame his
shyness and made a cold call to the Newcomb College undergraduate. She captivated him at their
first date at Camellia Grill. Less than a year later, they were married.

“It was a romance straight out of a book,” Ira said. “It was a love story.”

Allyn graduated from Newcomb in art therapy in 1973, Ira graduated from Tulane School of
Medicine in 1974, became an ophthalmologist, and they had three children. Then, when Allyn
was in her 40s, she started experiencing back pain when she played tennis. An x-ray showed that
she had multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells. Allyn fought for her life and lived 21 more
years. In her memory, Allyn’s family established the Allyn P. Udell Creative Medical Scholars
Endowed Fund at Tulane School of Medicine. The fund will award a scholarship for a female
medical student in the Creative Medical Scholars Program. Preference will be given to a student
conducting cancer research.

The Udell family wanted to create a fund at Tulane that would have brought delight to Allyn,
who was well known for her positive outlook and concern for others. “She would be happy
knowing that somebody at Tulane was going to be benefitting from it,” Udell said.

The Allyn P. Udell Hello Dolly Foundation will honor an extraordinary woman. Her legacy of
selflessness and optimism will surely live on in the prospective physicians who receive the award
bearing her name.

If you are interested in the Allyn P. Udell Creative Medical Scholars Endowed Fund, please
contact Holly Gulden at hgulden@tulane.edu or 504-314-7625.

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