LEUKEMIA AND LYMPHOMA SOCIETY Cancer Survivors Honored For Personal Triumphs Story by Tim Boxer Photos by Gandalf Riecks/PMc DGAR BRONFMAN JR. readily admitted that Wall Street Journal writer Laura Landro was no great fan of his. In fact, when Bronfman led his liquor company Seagram to buy Universal Studios in 1995, Landro actually called him “stupid.” Yet here he is, serving as dinner co-chairman of the New York City chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society benefit at The Plaza – introducing Landro as guest of honor! “She is still a working journalist,” Bronfman explained, “and I am not stupid!” “What a temperamental journalist I was!” Landro remarked. Landro, WSJ assistant managing editor, successfully battled leukemia as recounted in her book, Survivor: Taking Charge of Your Fight Against Cancer (Simon & Schuster, 1998). “It was the research that this organization funds that helped me,” Landro said. Keith Reinhard, chairman of DDB Worldwide, one of the world’s largest advertising networks, and a survivor of prostate cancer, also was honored. The annual dinner is dedicated to the memory of Bill Bernbach, a founder of DDB who died of leukemia in 1982. His great grandson Andrew Bernbach was recently diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia. Violaine Bernbach, Alexandra Mayes Birnbaum and Jacqueline Weld Drake served as gala chairs. Charles de Gunzburg, John B. Hess, Dan W. Lufkin and Steven Schwarzman were vice chairs. Dinner co-chairman John L. Bernbach proudly announced that the evening was the most successful in the chapter’s history: “We surpassed our goal.” |