Tom and Juli La Porte

TOM AND JULI La PORTE

Steadfast Commitments To The Cause

Written By Julia Brabant
November 2019

Though Tom La Porte didn’t know anyone personally affected by pancreatic cancer when he first teamed up with the Seena Magowitz Foundation, that has since changed, but what has remained constant in the years that followed was his steadfast commitment to the cause – and helping find a cure.

A longtime fixture on the local financial scene, Tom La Porte knows a thing or two about numbers, and he’s had a hand in changing many of them when it comes to the fight against pancreatic cancer. He first joined forces with the Seena Magowitz Foundation in 2012, after getting to know Founder and Chief Executive Officer Roger Magowitz at a series of social events, and the more he learned about the foundation, its relationship with the Translational Genomics Research Institute and the work of Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, the more impressed by it – and the more involved with it – he found himself.

No stranger to philanthropy, Tom and his wife, Juli, have a lengthy history of donating to causes near and dear to their hearts over the years, and Tom credits his own parents for helping him see just how much value there is in giving to others. Growing up the son of a police officer, his childhood was not one of opulence, but he still recalls clearly the day he found an old check register from his mother that listed $1 and $2 donations to the Salvation Army and a range of other charities.

“They instilled a sense of giving back in me, no matter how much you have to give,” he said, of his parents’ philanthropic nature. “Imagine what we could do if everyone in the world felt like that?”

While he may not be able to change the world, he has fostered the same sense of giving back in his own children, who regularly accompany him to the annual Seena Magowitz Foundation Golf Classic and other local and national charitable events.

“I have an enormous amount of respect for Dr. Von Hoff,” Tom said, of his dedication to the cause and his decision to serve as an ambassador for the Seena Magowitz Foundation, which gives 100% of every net dollar raised to Dr. Von Hoff and TGen to help pay for pancreatic cancer research. “His compassion for the patients he treats is rivaled only by his passion for finding a cure.”