Norfolk philanthropist dies months after EVMS building bearing family name opens
When Leah Waitzer decided to get involved with a project or a cause, she gave it all she had.
A generous philanthropist and dedicated volunteer to numerous causes in Hampton Roads, Waitzer was willing to do whatever was needed when she arrived to help with an event or project, son Brad Waitzer said.
“If that meant setting up, or cleaning up, she’d do it,” Brad Waitzer said. “She’d get her hands dirty.”
The lifelong Norfolk resident died Saturday at her home. She was 84 and had lived with Alzheimer’s disease for years, her son said.
Leah Waitzer’s death came just months after an expansive new building at Eastern Virginia Medical School named in her family’s honor opened to students and staff last fall. In 2018, the Waitzer family donated $4 million toward the project, the largest gift the school had ever received at that time.
The 11-story building serves as the new cornerstone for the medical school’s campus.
It’s the second-largest building there, providing 89,000square feet of classroom and office space.
The gift to help fund the building’s construction was the second major donation Waitzer and her husband, real estate developer Richard Waitzer, had made to EVMS. In 2012, the couple donated $1 million to establish the Murray Waitzer Endowed Chair for Diabetes Research in memory of Richard’s father, who suffered from Type 1 diabetes.
“They (Leah and Richard) were genuine leaders in the community, throughout Hampton Roads, not just EVMS,” said Dr. Richard Homan, the medical school’s president and provost. “We’re just enormously grateful for all the support and leadership they provided us.”
The couple had been married 61 years when Richard Waitzer died in January 2019. They had three sons and three grandchildren, all of whom are involved in the family’s philanthropic projects. The family also has given generously to Virginia Symphony, Chrysler Museum of Art and Norfolk Academy.
Leah Waitzer began her volunteer service shortly after she graduated from Goucher College in Maryland, and got married. She started as a volunteer teacher at a home for unwed mothers, then became active at Norfolk Academy when her sons began school there. She was everything from class mother, field-trip driver, chaperone, field-day chairwoman, to substitute Latin teacher, according to her family.
After her youngest son went off to college, she took on multiple other volunteer duties, with a focus on projects involving children’s issues and the arts, her family said.
Waitzer served as an independent investigator for Virginia Beach’s juvenile courts for 22 years, and co-founded the city’s Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) program. The roles allowed her to help countless young people involved in the city’s court system and led to many longtime relationships with them, her family said.
Waitzer also served as chair of the Virginia Committee for Juvenile Justice, and as a trustee for the Chrysler Museum, Virginia Arts Festival and Norfolk Academy.
“She enjoyed it all,” Brad Waitzer said. “Obviously she wanted to do good in the community, but she also enjoyed the social aspect of it all. She enjoyed the camaraderie and the friends she made, and the work itself. And she loved seeing the results.”