November 29, 1978
Dear Mary:
In connection with our discussion yesterday, I have the following observations:
(1) At the August 11, 1978 meeting of the Coordinating Council, Doctor Norman Kaplan of Dallas, who is Chairman of the 1979 Conference in Washington and a very fine guy, proposed that starting with the 1980 Conference an award be presented annually to an individual and an organization for outstanding contributions to high blood pressure. I send you a brief reference to the discussion of that issue from the August 11 minutes. It was agreed at the meeting that the Coordinating Committee composed of the 13 large national organizations would be the jury, but that nominations should be elicited from all over the country. There was to be further discussion of this matter at the November 6 Council meeting, but Doctor Kaplan could not make the meeting so the issue was deferred.
(2) Realistically, there is really no time to get nomination blanks out and all the other things that have to be done in order to make these awards at the Washington Conference, April 4-6. From your experience with the Lasker Awards, you know that a fair amount of lead time is required.  Furthermore, in this case the issue was formally postponed until the next meeting of the Coordinating Council on March 5, 1979. Finally, the preparation of the 1979 program booklet is about 90 percent completed because it has to be sent out in January. This is a mailing of about 30,000 people and organizations.
(3) I think it is imperative that we do this award in cooperation with the Coordinating Council. These are our friends and, we don't want to do anything to alienate them. For example, Doctor Kaplan is a strong ally of Citizens, as is Doctor Ray Gifford, the head of the Cleveland Clinic's hypertension section who  represents the American Medical Association, and so on down the line. Gifford, for example, is helping us with the Inner City Black Program in Cleveland, and he will also be an excellent witness before Claude Pepper, since he is the outstanding authority in the country on hypertension among the elderly. I could, mention other names, but you get the drift.
(4)  The award idea is still an excellent one but we want to make it as official as possible and make it an integral part of the National Hypertension Conference. I certainly think we can get one of the pharmaceutical houses to make a $10,000 contribution to Citizens which the Coordinating Council would use as the prize money for the award.
Cordially,
Mike