Will Radler gives AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin a $1 million gift

The Knock Out RoseThe AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin will announce a $1 million gift on Friday — the largest single gift to benefit HIV patients in the state's history.

Will Radler, a retired landscape architect and amateur botanist who developed one of the bestselling roses of all time, made the gift through the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.

"This gift will save lives," said Mike Gifford, president and chief executive of the AIDS Resource Center.

The contribution will enable the AIDS Resource Center, or ARC, to add the equivalent of one full-time psychiatrist to its staff for three years, fulfilling an immediate need in the center's goal of providing comprehensive care and social services to its 2,742 patients and clients statewide.

"This is a very generous individual, who saw a very significant need in this community and who stepped forward with a million dollars," Gifford said. "And that's never happened."

The center — which employs a psychotherapist, clinical psychologist and eight licensed therapists — hired a psychiatrist for 10 hours a week and celebrated the addition to its staff at a fundraiser.

"My response was, 'Well, that's not enough,'" Radler said.

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