our history

The Evelyn Lilly Lutz Foundation was founded in 1949 in connection with Beverly Hospital as a nonprofit organization engaged in supporting and encouraging medical research and continuing education. Over the years, it has also supported capital improvements to the hospital’s medical equipment and technologies.

The Foundation’s relationship with Beverly Hospital goes back seven decades. In 1947, Evelyn Lilly Roberts was injured falling off her horse. Dr. Richard Alt, the Beverly Hospital doctor who treated her, took exceedingly good care of her and she made a full recovery. Her father, Eli Lilly, the president of Eli Lilly and Company, and grandson of the famous pharmaceutical company’s founder, was so grateful for the kindness shown to his daughter, he immediately made a donation to Beverly Hospital’s physical-therapy department. The year after, in 1948, Mr. Lilly help to set up a new foundation for Beverly Hospital, and with that, the Beverly Hospital Research Association—now the Lutz Foundation—was born.