Helen Smucker received the 2024 Summa Health Distinguished Physician Award on behalf of her late husband, William D. Smucker, M.D. Pictured from left: Cliff Deveny, M.D., president and chief executive officer, Summa Health; George Strickler, chair, Summa Health Board of Directors; Helen Smucker; Julia Rea Bianchi, chair, Summa Foundation Board of Directors; and Jessica Hudson, president, Summa Foundation, and chief development officer, Summa Health.
Summa Health honors legacy of the late Dr. William D. Smucker, celebrates the generosity of supporters
The Hilton Akron/Fairlawn provided an elegant backdrop for the nearly 300 guests who gathered on May 16, 2024, for an evening marked by gratitude at the annual Summa Society Celebration. Each year, Summa Health hosts this special evening to thank the countless benefactors and volunteers whose generosity sustains the compassionate delivery of clinical excellence for patients in the greater Akron area.
Dr. Cliff Deveny, Summa Health president and chief executive officer, was joined by George Strickler, chair of the Summa Health Board of Directors; Julia Rea Bianchi, chair of the Summa Foundation Board of Directors; and Jessica Hudson, president of Summa Foundation and chief development officer at Summa Health, in celebrating guests.
Also at the celebration, the late Dr. William D. Smucker was honored posthumously with Summa Health’s Distinguished Physician Award, the health system’s highest physician honor, in grateful recognition of his 33 years of service. His legacy will be remembered as an extraordinary educator and outstanding clinician whose compassion and devotion to his patients’ lives on at Summa Health and in the memories of those who loved him. His wife, Helen Smucker, accepted the award on his behalf surrounded by family members and friends.
During a private reception earlier in the evening, Dr. Massood and Simin Babai and The Circle of Women’s Health Philanthropists were inducted into the Thomas W. Cornell Philanthropic Leadership Society, which recognizes benefactors who have given $1 million or more to Summa Health. The society is named in honor of the first president of Akron City Hospital’s board of trustees and founding benefactor.
