She was such a remarkable lady, the very definition of graciousness. She wouldn't mind a biography if it would be an example of what you could accomplish with your life.

-Glenna Shapiro, former Director, Arizona Kidney Foundation

Virginia was "old school" and yet very much with the present. She did even small things beautifully. Virginia would help us with an event by making a contribution or buying a table, and unless I wrote her a thank-you note almost prior to the event or prior to her giving the money, I would receive this beautiful, handwritten note from her thanking me and the foundation for the opportunity to participate.

She had a lot of funds to manage in the last years, and she had advisors and good friends, such as Dayton and Laura Grafman, to consult, but you had the sense if you talked to Virginia about something that she would listen and consider. She put a special trust in you. "Now, dear," she would say to me. "I know your organization does a good job, so I don't want to tell you how to do things."

She always looked the same, always beautiful. I remember she had very pretty, sparkling eyes. Virginia also had humility. She didn't look down on anyone. Through her body language, the way she moved, she communicated that she had time for you. Her outward appearance was always calm, gracious, low-key.

Virginia taught me a tremendous amount. I learned from her how to be kind but focused on what you have to do in your life.

-Gianna Talone Sullivan, Pharm. D., Foundress, Mission of Mercy

I first met Virginia around 1986, when my sister Claudia and Paul Critchfield, Virginia's nephew, were dating. She was very gracious, reserved, clearly a lady of dignity and honor. She had strict criteria for determining when to become a benefactor. When I tried to launch Mission of Mercy, she wished me the best of luck. It wasn't until we moved to Maryland and had a launch there, with two or three years of success, that Virginia became a key figure in our Arizona launch in 1997, giving us our first major gift. "How are the good works?" was always her first question to me.

She took a great interest in Mission of Mercy. She gave me courage and taught me not to be afraid to ruffle anyone's feathers. If you're convinced of the truth of your mission, you have to live it, breathe it. She taught me fearlessness among the rich and the poor equally. "No fear other than God," is what Virginia and I discussed because it was the message given to me by Our Lord when I was invited to launch Mission of Mercy.

Virginia was a great leader because she opened her heart to love God, and she understood that we are all children of God.

In my thirty-two years in this business, I never had as much pleasure as I did in conversing with Virginia Piper. She was always interested in my family, in where I had grown up in Michigan. It was almost instinctual, as if she couldn't get enough of hearing about other people.

-Max Poll, former President and CEO, Scottsdale Healthcare Foundation

I began as the fourth president and CEO of the Scottsdale Healthcare Foundation in June 1992. Within the first fifteen minutes of meeting Virginia, I knew I was dealing with someone very different. I can remember that first moment in the waiting room of the ICU as we sat with the nursing manager and two or three other staff nurses at Osborn for the ICU dedication. You could see that the nurses were immediately drawn to her. Virginia was able to extract experiences from them that are not easy for the nurses to talk about, and yet it just flowed. Often, someone donating significant funds to an ICU will be interested in the equipment, the technology, the building, the decor, all of that. With Virginia, that was fine,it needed to be done right,but the interest very, very quickly moved on to the subject of people. The nature of the exchange was almost one thousand percent related to people and the nursing staff.

Virginia was very, very curious and had a tremendous love for children. I remember one of the gifts we worked on.

I think it may have been the major expansion to the Piper Surgery Center. Virginia inquired, as we were making our presentation, if children would be taken care of in this facility, and of course the answer was very much yes. At that time we had two pediatric units, one on Shea and one on Osborn, and we planned to consolidate those into one larger unit at the Shea campus. Well, that just sealed the deal.

After a period of time, I learned that if I had an appointment with Virginia to first make sure I was on time and second to never schedule anything very close to the tail end of it, because invariably the conversation would stretch way beyond an hour into all kinds of things.

Once, Virginia found out that I liked chocolate-chip cookies. Well, we had a saying: "A true balanced diet is a cookie in either hand." She thought that was perfect and always had chocolate-chip cookies ready for me when I visited her in her home.

Later, when Virginia was unfortunately ill and in the hospital on a number of occasions, the nurses were once again immediately drawn to her. Certainly she was a VIP. Certainly the staff knew the name Piper and knew, at both campuses, that this was the lady who had donated millions of dollars to the organization. But the nursing staff's care for her was totally unrelated to that knowledge: they were responsive to her as a person.

Virginia had an incredible sense of the moment. She knew how to act in every situation. She was comfortable whether she was talking to one person or to a crowd. She was a very engaging, inviting, remarkable person.

-John N. Ferree, Jr., President, Scottsdale Healthcare Foundation

When we were going to enlarge the Piper Outpatient Surgery Center on the Shea campus, we came to the conclusion we needed more space. So we arranged a meeting with Virginia, and it was orchestrated to a T. Laura Grafman made sure we had her favorite cookies, her favorite flowers, just the right people present. It was a magical moment. We were thinking of moving the entire Piper Outpatient Surgery Center, creating a new building elsewhere on the campus. Well, in her own quiet but very pointed way, Virginia said something like, "I don't think I'd do that if I were you," or "I'm not sure you really want to do that,"something subtle,but the point was made. We knew we were looking at a substantial donation if Virginia was happy with our plans. So we did indeed decide to improve upon the current building. Virginia made a two-million-dollar gift over a period of time to the outpatient surgery center, perhaps the largest commitment she had ever made up to that point.

Another memory: for years, people had tried to get Virginia to accept an award from the National Society of Fund Raising Executives (NSFRE), now called AFP, the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Virginia clearly had deserved an award for many years, but she had turned it down repeatedly. Finally, in 1991, Laura Grafman and I decided we would do anything to get her to accept the award. I was president of NSFRE at the time, so I was also master of ceremonies and able to sit on the dais beside Virginia that evening, making sure she was comfortable, being her escort while I was managing my other duties. Being that close to her when she actually received her award as Outstanding Philanthropist of 1991 was a great honor, a great privilege.

So when I think of Virginia, I think of these two instances. I also remember how vibrant and warm she was, how she empowered others, freely, easily, effortlessly. She loved to have a check in her purse so she could pull it out and present it. She always wanted to be prepared to give that check. She gave thoughtfully, intelligently, from the heart. As long as Virginia Piper was on our board, we never had anyone turn us down when they were invited to be on the board. People wanted to serve with her.