Supporting the Brain Imaging Center at UCI

B.W. COOK

“Within psychiatric circles, if you kill yourself, you earn the right

to be considered a ‘successful’ suicide,” said Kay Redfield Jamison,

author of the national bestseller “An Unquiet Mind: a Memoir of Moods

and Madness.” This is a success you can live without. Suicidal

depression, I decided in the midst of my indescribably awful,

18-month bout of it, is God’s way of keeping manics in their place.

It works.”

She addressed the Newport-Mesa crowd at the Marriott Fashion

Island as the keynote speaker of the ninth annual Silver Ribbon Award

Dinner presented by the Brain Imaging Center of UC Irvine, College of

Medicine. It was an important gathering of dedicated citizens working

to find answers to the questions of mental illness. It was also an

emotional night, with feelings, ideas and hopes for a better world

being shared by all of those in attendance.

Jamison is a professor of psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins School

of Medicine. She has written textbooks on various subjects relating

to mental illness. She is also a victim of its devastation.

In her memoir, “An Unquiet Mind,” she examines the painful and

personal journey of person trying to travel back from a place of loss

and confusion to a place of wholeness. She is a survivor of what

many, if not most, have succumbed to.

The Silver Ribbon Award Dinner, chaired by Mara Eyer-Hube, was

organized to honor two very special Newport Beach people. Margaret

and Robert Sprague, dedicated to contributing whatever their time,

talent and finances will allow to fight the scourge of mental

illness, were named the honored guests for their selflessness.

Robert Sprague addressed the dinner crowd, “We are often asked,

What is our payback?” Margaret joined her husband in answering the

question. “We find tremendous happiness in giving to others.”

It was a simple and direct response genuinely given from the

heart. The Spragues are not publicity seekers. They are not people

who get involved with projects as part of a social agenda. They are

people who want to make a difference, and have carefully allocated

resources to help reach very important goals.

Because of Robert and Margaret Sprague, Sprague Hall exists at

UCI, and the Brain Imagining Center is in large part funded by their

purpose. Their generosity is seemingly endless, and the results are

helping countless people suffering from mental ailments.

The involvement of the Spragues comes from a very personal place.

Robert Sprague’s son, a gifted musician and successful attorney,

committed suicide at 48, leaving behind a precious wife and children.

The horror of his loss propelled Robert Sprague to act on behalf of

others.

Margaret Sprague lost her first husband at the age of 44. He was

afflicted with bipolar disease and suffered from enormous mood

swings. At that time, there was almost nothing available in the

medical field to help her late husband, she said.

“There were no brain imaging centers, there were no scientists

like Kay Jamison writing books to share their experiences,” she said.

“Mental illness was hidden, in the closet -- feared.”

“So many advances have occurred in the past 10 years that we have

tremendous hope that science will take us to amazing levels of

understanding in the next 10 years,” Robert Sprague interjected.

“That is why we have committed ourselves to this goal, and it is also

why money is needed to fund the research.”

The Spragues are heroes. They are intelligent, they are brave, and

they are willing to share their personal tragedy to help others. I

share their mission.

My life has also been inexorably changed by the suicide of a loved

one, and the mental illness suffered by family members. Not one day

goes by that I do not take a moment to think about what I might have

been able to do to alter the events that led up to the death in my

family.

“There is an assumption, in attaching Puritan concepts such as

‘successful’ and ‘unsuccessful’ to the awful, final act of suicide,

that those that fail in killing themselves are not only weak, but

incompetent, incapable of even getting their dying quite right,”

Jamison writes. “Suicide, however, is almost always an irrational act

and seldom is it accompanied by the kind of rigorous intellect that

goes with one’s better days. It is often impulsive and not

necessarily undertaken in the way one originally plans.”

The gathering of dedicated souls, led by the Brain Imaging

steering committee represented by Peggy Goldwater Clay, Jean Liechty

and Blynn Bunney, attracted the best and the brightest of UCI

leaders, including Chancellor Ralph Cicerone, Thomas Cesario, William

Bunney, Steven Potkin, Joseph Wo, and UC President Emeritus Jack

Peltason.

Distinguished guests and donors in the crowd included Eric and

Lila Nelson and James and Ellyne Warsaw. Others deserving mention for

their support of BIC include Dee Harvey, Margie Keith, Alpha Hahn,

Warren and Marion Brown, Anita Ziebe, and Lana Chandler.

The Brain Imaging Center committee was founded by the late Athalie

Clarke, mother of Joan Irvine Smith. Major Silver Ribbon sponsors

were the Joan Irvine Smith and Athalie Clarke foundations, as well as

Michelle Rohe and Sandra Brodie.

Ralph Cicerone, UCI chancellor, commented on the work of Robert

and Margaret Sprague.

“They are the rope that pulls us along,” he said. “We follow, and

they continue to pull a little harder.”

Vision, hard work, money and the dignity to speak out to put a

face on mental illness will eventually lead those being pulled on the

rope across a line that opens doors to unlimited horizons. Then, the

tears shed at dinner gatherings such as this Silver Ribbon

celebration may be tears of joy and triumph rather than tears of

sadness.

Robert Sprague is correct when he states that the advances to come

will make all the difference. And perhaps, there will come a day when

science will find a way to prevent suicide in those suffering from

depression and mental illness, and then loved ones will not be

sentenced to a life of questions and guilt.

To get involved and support the Brain Imaging Center, call Diana

Atkins at (949) 824-8202.