Sheila Konar

Holocaust survivor Bill Konar* immigrated to the United States in 1946 as a teenage orphan. He settled in Rochester, New York, where he met his future wife, Sheila. In 1954, they married and soon started their family. Bill also started a chain of discount drugstores that later became CVS and established a successful real estate development company as well.

"Bill was a brilliant man, and we had the life dreams are built on," Sheila says of her husband, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2000. "Then this terrible disease changed everything."

Embracing her role as Bill's caregiver, Sheila turned to the Alzheimer's Association for support and information. The couple joined the Zenith Society in 2007 with a gift to advance programs and services at the Alzheimer's Association Rochester and Finger Lakes Region Chapter.

Bill passed away in June 2015, but Sheila remains committed to the fight against Alzheimer's. In 2017, she took her philanthropy to another level by joining the Association's Founders Society, naming the organization in her estate.

"I have to continue what I'm doing and hope that others will do the same," she says. "There's no way to cure this disease without investment."

*deceased