Old Main on the University of Arizona campus.

 Ron Medvescek / Arizona Daily Star/

Humberto and Czarina Lopez, longtime supporters of the UA, have given the university $3.5 million to establish two endowed chairs.

The Czarina M. and Humberto S. Lopez Endowed Chair for Excellence in Cardiovascular Research has been established at Sarver Heart Center with $2 million.

Workers at the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab at the University of Arizona work to mold the sixth of seven primary mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope in 2021. The mirror lab cast the seventh mirror in 2023.

Carol Gregorio, co-director of the center and head of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, is the inaugural chair holder, according to a UA news release.

The Lopezes also directed $1.5 million to establish the Dhaliwal-HSLopez Chair in Accounting at the Eller College of Management in honor of Dan Dhaliwal, a 1977 alumnus, who was head of the accounting department from 1996 until his death in 2016.

“Bert and Czarina are inspiring members of the Wildcat family,” said University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins. “This exceptional investment in health and education adds to their already generous legacy of time, expertise and philanthropy. I am so grateful for their transformative support and their far-reaching impact across campus.”

Endowed chairs are faculty positions funded by donations.

Humberto Lopez is a 1969 graduate of the Eller College and chairman of HSL Properties, a property management company that he co-founded.

“We’ve been blessed, and we’re getting to an age where we realize we can’t take it with us. We started out with nothing, and we will leave with nothing, so in the meantime we’d like to be able to help others,” Humberto Lopez said.

“It grows on you. The more you give, the more you notice it’s not enough,” Czarina Lopez said.

The couple has served on and led advisory and governing boards for the Eller College, the Steele Children’s Research Center, the UA Foundation and Sarver Heart Center.

The couple’s affiliation with Sarver Heart Center is made more personal by Czarina Lopez’s experience as a heart and kidney transplant recipient. Although she had the transplant at another medical center, she has been a patient of Sarver Heart Center.

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