Every day, generous donors make a difference in the lives of the patients, providers, clinicians, students, faculty, and staff across Dartmouth Health and the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.
Their gifts ensure that high-quality care is delivered in the right place, at the right time to those who need it most, that research and groundbreaking innovation can flourish, and that Geisel students have the support required to become the next generation of healthcare leaders. But what inspires these donors to give back? We’re sharing a few of those stories of inspiration below.
Forget the Casserole: Take Action Instead
Dani Capsis of Lyme, New Hampshire, says her husband, Mike Morton D ’80, was known for leading by example in many areas of his life, especially when it came to helping others. He donated significantly to causes he cared about and lived simply to make that possible.
Many years ago, during one of Capsis’ hospital stays at Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (she is a two-time breast cancer survivor), Mike wondered why the lightbulbs in the lobby were the old-style, inefficient bulbs and not the newer LEDs so many of us have switched over to. So he quietly made a gift to swap them out for the more energy-efficient option. “His idea was that the money saved [in energy costs] could go toward patient care,” Capsis recalls.
The pair had been together for roughly 20 years by 2019, when Mike received a devastating diagnosis: glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. They married later that same year and battled the disease until Mike died in January 2021.
Five years on, Capsis is hoping others will do what she did in the wake of Mike’s passing: Turn grief into action. With a generous gift, she created the Kermit Moon Cancer Research Fund to support research and treatment of brain cancer at Dartmouth Cancer Center. She’s rallying support among friends, family, and perfect strangers with the hope that the fund can reach the $1 million mark. “I don’t want any other family to have to go through what we went through,” she says.
But who—or what—is Kermit Moon, exactly? It’s Mike Morton, 100%, she says.
Among his many professional achievements in the technology realm, Morton authored software used in creating online puzzles and word games and loved playing around with language and creating anagrams. So when it came time to name the fund, an anagram of Mike Morton—Kermit Moon— seemed appropriate.
Capsis’ gift and crowd-sourced fundraising efforts are the most recent example of her ability to marshal forces to support the innovative research that goes on here. For 20 years, she’s been part of The Prouty, as a team captain, a volunteer, and even as a steel-drum player at a pivotal point on the Prouty course. This year alone, she raised more than $250,000 for Dartmouth Cancer Center through the annual event.
She and Mike have supported Dartmouth Health and Geisel for nearly three decades with gifts both large and small. “It’s not about the amount, it’s in the doing, and the example you’re setting for the people around you.” That, she believes, is the real power of philanthropy.
Capsis thinks back to well-intentioned friends who asked how they could help her during Mike’s illness and eventual passing. Reflecting on that time now, her message is blunt, but—she hopes—motivating: “If you want to help, don’t stop at the casserole or a lasagna you were going to make. Also consider turning your grief into greater impact, and support research and treatment initiatives like Kermit Moon that may lead to prevention instead.”
A Near Miss Makes for a Big Fan
Dave Almstrom was enjoying one of his favorite hobbies with his son—cutting firewood— in February 2024 when disaster struck: A 200-pound dead oak log that had been hidden in the branches above him broke loose, landing on his arm and chainsaw.
In pain and with a makeshift splint on his arm, Almstrom insisted his son take him to Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC).
He was moved swiftly from DHMC’s Emergency Department to surgery, where surgeons performed intricate work, inserting three plates and two dozen screws to successfully reconstruct his shattered arm. He had a long recovery ahead; there was swelling and tissue damage from the freak accident, and it was predicted it could take him a year to recover.
But thanks to the team from Dartmouth Health’s Hand Occupational Therapy Department, and his commitment to at-home exercises, in just four months, Almstrom had full control of his hand again.
To thank them, he and his wife Betty made a gift in early 2026 to Dartmouth Health’s “Honor a Caregiver” campaign. “My therapists were personable, knowledgeable, skilled, and caring,” Almstrom wrote in tribute. “They performed painless recovery for my fractured arm, [and] my wife and I are indebted to them all. They really got me through this.”
Bequest Honors Teacher, Helps Med Students
Every teacher hopes they can leave an impression on their students— that they fostered their love of learning, piqued their academic curiosity, and prepared them well for further studies and a future career.
For Robert Nystrom, MD, D ’44 MED ’44, that was the case with his anatomy teacher, Frederic Lord, MD, D 1898 MED 1903—and the motivation for Nystrom leaving a bequest to create a scholarship honoring Lord at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, where he taught from 1911 to 1946. It was also Nystrom’s way of helping future generations of medical school students to earn the highest caliber of medical education, as he did more than 80 years ago.
Nystrom, who died in December 2022, attended Northwestern University Medical School after Dartmouth and served for two years in the U.S. Army as a medical officer. He worked as an ophthalmologist in private practice from 1953 to 1975 and finished his career at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Dallas as the chief ophthalmologist. He also served as an associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of Texas Medical School.
Today, scholarships like Nystrom’s help students like Xavier Takam, who is set to graduate from Geisel in 2027. Takam shared with scholarship donors recently, “Your support has enabled me to work alongside inspiring faculty and peers, developing clinical and research skills that deepened my love for medicine. Thank you for investing in students like me and for investing in our future. You are creating a path for us to follow your legacy and keep giving to the community as you graciously do.”
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