Milestone Donor Spotlight: Commitment to Preserving Access

A Philanthropic Commitment to Preserving Access to Healthcare in Rural Central New York 

Gates Helms Hawn, a retired investment banker from New York City, grew up in Cooperstown. Hawn and his wife, Mary Ellen, have gifted over $1.5 million to various Bassett Healthcare Network initiatives. He was born at The Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital (MIBH) in 1948 and likes to say he was "born again" there in February of 1979 after surviving the crash of a Catskill Airways plane at the Oneonta airport.  Hawn's injuries left him paralyzed from the waist down. 

"The impact of the crash tore my spinal cord but luckily didn't sever it," explains Hawn. " I owe my recovery to two talented surgeons, Dr. Bill Hopper from A.O. Fox Hospital and the late Dr. Bruce Harris from Bassett Medical Center." 

Hopper, an orthopedic surgeon, and Harris, a neurosurgeon, led a team of caregivers who spent months helping Hawn heal and walk again.  He was just 30 at the time and had flown back to Cooperstown to visit his parents, Dr. Clinton Van Zandt Hawn and Elizabeth Hawn.  Dr. Hawn was the Pathologist-in-Chief of MIBH and Hawn's mother volunteered at the hospital throughout her lifetime and led the creation of the hospital's first coffee shop. 

"They thoroughly enjoyed Cooperstown and never left," says Hawn, who spent the first years of childhood in Cooperstown until moving away after the eighth grade to continue his education at the Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland and Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts. 

"It was an idyllic village to grow up in where summers were spent on the lake sailing and playing tennis, and winter skiing at Mount Otsego.  I still think of Cooperstown as a magical place," says Hawn, who graduated from Williams College and went on to become a prominent investment banking executive. 

Prior to retiring in 2002, Hawn's leadership roles included Global Head of Financial Services at Credit Suisse First Boston, and he was CEO & Chairman of the Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Financial Services Group for 21 years. He started his career in Securities Markets Division of the Bankers Trust Company.  

In 2024 and 2025, Hawn and his wife donated $560,000 to support Friends of Bassett Healthcare Network cancer initiatives. 

"We can help in ways that other people can't and that's what we try to do-to those much has been given, much is expected.", said Gates Helms Hawn.

"Happily, we don't have cancer in our families but have always believed preventive medicine and health maintenance are important. Particularly in rural areas, where too many people live at or below poverty level and struggle with transportation, access to cancer screening needs to be as convenient as possible."

Hawn says he hand his wife's philanthropy is fueled by the places they grew up and where they were educated, and focuses primarily on education, healthcare, social services, and arts and cultural institutions. 

Although retired, Hawn continues to serve on the boards of The Farmers' Museum (Fenimore Farm and Country Village). The Clark Foundation and The Scriven Foundation in Cooperstown.  He and his wife live in Far Hills, New Jersey and Carefree, Arizona.