Giving that feels ‘beyond meaningful’

Suni Elgar speaking at a podium — Fred Hutch Associate Chief Nursing Officer Suni Elgar speaks during the Nurses Week Town Hall meeting on May 7, 2025 at Fred Hutch Cancer Center. Photo by Robert Hood / Fred Hutch News Service

In 2017, Suni Elgar, MPH, RN, hadn’t yet become associate chief nursing officer at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, but change was coming. Her supervisor, Rosemary Ford, BSN, RN, was wrapping up a 40-year career. Ford had led the way in standardizing patient-centered care in bone marrow transplant nursing and knew Elgar could continue her legacy.

This would mean more schooling for Elgar, but she had three young children and felt overwhelmed, especially knowing the cost of an advanced degree.

“Thinking of your children’s future and saving for their college, it's hard to prioritize yourself,” she said.

But then in 2018 Elgar was awarded the Harold and John Steinberg Memorial Nursing Scholarship. She was among a half-dozen annual recipients nominated by peers. The award opened the way for a career-altering opportunity for her.

“Receiving that scholarship helped relieve a burden on my family,” she said, “and the recognition affirmed that my colleagues wanted to invest time and energy into me, grow me as a leader and keep me at the institution.”

Howard and Cynthia Steinberg aimed for this kind of impact when they imagined the scholarship fund more than three decades ago. They made their first contribution in 1995 and later decided to establish it as an endowment, meaning that the principal is invested, and the earnings can be spent annually to help provide sustained support in perpetuity.

Continual and ongoing contributions from the Steinbergs and their friends and family have made it possible for nearly 130 nurses to receive more than $315,000 in continuing education experiences, with recipients bringing back knowledge and new skills to their teams. The Steinbergs have also been open to the evolving needs of recipients, with initial funds being used more for conferences and later funds being used more for degree programs, like the one Elgar chose.

Continuing to work full time, Elgar got her master's degree in public health from the University of Washington, coupling prior international experience in democracy and human rights to her current commitment to oncology nursing.

Looking back, her twins now just a year from starting college, she feels incredibly grateful.

“I came to nursing a little bit older than some folks after being out and working in the world, and I feel like one of the most miraculous parts of this job is how continuing education expands our horizons,” she said.

Three people seated in an auditorium — Howard and Cynthia Steinberg with Nancy Greenwood Vehrs, left, a member of Fred Hutch's Philanthropy team, at a 2019 visit during the 25th anniversary of the Harold and John Steinberg Memorial Nursing Scholarship awards. Fred Hutch file photo

The Steinbergs’ journey through unexpected hardships

The Steinbergs’ generosity is rooted in support they received many years ago and a desire to help other families avoid the heartache they experienced. The story begins in 1963 in Kansas City, Missouri. Howard Steinberg was 3 years old and his brother, John Steinberg, 2, when their father, Harold Steinberg, opened a Budget Rent a Car franchise.

“He took great care of his family, loved to play golf and never stopped working,” Howard Steinberg said. By the late 1970s, the company had grown from 13 cars to a fleet of 400 and was generating more than $3 million in revenue.

Then, disaster struck the family. In 1980, when Howard and John Steinberg were both in college, 55-year-old Harold Steinberg was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell found in the bone marrow. In 1981, on a trip to purchase another Budget franchise, he died suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage, a complication from chemotherapy.

The family was in shock.

“We were privileged, upper-middle-class, but our mother was suddenly on her own. And although we were already young adults, we still grew up fast,” Howard Steinberg said.

His mother, Sondra Steinberg, sold their business interest. However, a few years later, her sons had an opportunity to repurchase it.

“Two young guys convinced the bank in Kansas City to lend us a heck of a lot more money than they ever should have,” Howard Steinberg said.

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It was supposed to be a family affair, with the two brothers complementing each other and continuing their father’s legacy. But after overcoming one all-encompassing challenge, they soon faced another. In 1992, at age 30 and newly married, John Steinberg was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Their physician in Kansas City recommended he go to “the best place in the world to have a bone marrow transplant,” and that’s when the family’s story intersected with Fred Hutch.

Finding a family of nurses far from home

Fred Hutch, where E. Donnall Thomas, MD, had recently received the Nobel Prize for developing bone marrow transplantation, had already performed more than 1,000 transplant procedures. The family felt hopeful — and overwhelmed.

“We didn’t know anything about Fred Hutch, and Seattle seemed like the end of the earth,” Howard Steinberg said.

John Steinberg received two bone marrow transplants in two years, one in 1993 and the next in 1994. Howard Steinberg was the donor both times. In an uncertain situation far from home, Fred Hutch nurses gave the steady, comforting and knowledgeable support that the Steinbergs needed until John’s death in 1994 from an infection.

“The nurses knew everything that was going on and took care of John — they felt like family,” Howard Steinberg said.

Celebratory Giving

Howard and Cynthia Steinberg continue to remember their loved ones and celebrate life, something John Steinberg especially would have wanted.

How do they know? Because he was always thinking of others and because their twins, Halle and John, were born one year to the day after his death.

The family is Jewish, and observing a Yahrzeit, or the anniversary of a death, is deeply significant as a time for remembrance, honoring and mourning. Cynthia Steinberg believes that their children’s birth date was no coincidence. “John got involved in that,” she said.

“My brother would prefer us to be having a party rather than mourning,” said Howard Steinberg. So, every year, they light candles and celebrate. The couple often gives in honor of their birthdays and other milestones, an approach that also moves others to donate.

Their friends and family have contributed over $75,000 to Fred Hutch's Harold and John Steinberg Memorial Nursing Scholarship Fund.

The Steinberg Twins — Twins, Halle and John Steinberg Photo courtesy of Cynthia Steinberg

Challenging experiences made easier

When he and his wife established the scholarship fund, Howard Steinberg wrote a letter to Fred Hutch. In it, he said:

“Out of all bad things come some good. We went to the Hutch under difficult circumstances, but you all made things bearable. My family would like to recognize all of you for your outstanding work in the treatment of cancer patients and especially those of you that are receiving scholarships. We can think of no better way to honor the memory of my father and brother than by naming this scholarship fund after them and by paying tribute to you and your efforts.”

Over the years, the Steinbergs have received notes from nursing recipients about their experiences, like 2020 scholarship recipient Hailey Fantozzi, BSN, RN, who went to the International Symposium on Late Complications After Childhood Cancer, sharing that, “It served as a beneficial reminder that the mental, emotional, and physical effects of cancer remain for a lifetime, and it is of monumental importance to continue to advocate for survivorship care.”

For 2018 awardee Julia Majovski, DNP, ARNP, the fund allowed her to get her doctorate in nursing practice.

“Going back to school full time as an adult is hard when you have a family to support,” she wrote. “Your substantial gift allowed me to work less so that I could focus on my studies more.”

Hailey Fantozzi, BSN, RN, and Julia Majovski, DNP, ARNP — Registered nurse Hailey Fantozzi, left, and nurse practitioner Julia Majovski are both past recipients of the Harold and John Steinberg Memorial Nursing Scholarship Photo courtesy of Hailey Fantozzi and Fred Hutch file photo

Howard Steinberg understands what it feels like to juggle priorities when launching a career. He remembers his father’s persistence and their own uphill climb when he and his brother were rebuilding their father's legacy.

"After my brother and I bought the business back, we'd work late washing cars together because we were so short-staffed back then,” he said.

Fred Hutch was a different place back then, too. Being a bone marrow transplant donor was much more invasive, for instance.

“They did it the old-fashioned way, taking [the donated cells] out of the hip,” Howard Steinberg said. “I even had to get an epidural.”

The Steinbergs also can't forget how new and challenging the treatments were for John Steinberg, bringing into focus all the progress they've seen — and contributed to — since then.

In addition to the Harold and John Steinberg Memorial Nursing Scholarship Fund, the Steinbergs have supported Fred Hutch’s Center for Metastasis Research eXcellence, or MET-X, to better understand, detect and prevent the spread of cancer; invested in the work of leukemia biology expert Soheil Meshinchi, MD, PhD, through Project Stella, and established the Sondra Steinberg Prosterman Endowment for Ovarian Cancer in memory of Howard Steinberg’s mother to advance ovarian cancer research.

“As meaningful as this is, we would prefer that all three of them, Harold, John and Sondra, were still with us,” said Cynthia Steinberg. “Since we can’t have that, it’s beyond meaningful to us that our giving is helping others — it makes you feel that they are still touching people, even after they’re gone.”

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