George Norcross is donating $100 million to Cooper University Health Care
Cooper said it would add Norcross to its name but did not specify how. The gift is among the largest ever to a New Jersey health system.
George E. Norcross, longtime Cooper University Health Care board chair and political powerbroker, is donating $100 million to the South Jersey health system and its MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper, the nonprofit announced Tuesday.
The gift, in honor of Norcross’ parents, is Cooper’s largest and among the largest ever to a nonprofit health system in New Jersey. It comes at a time when Cooper’s financial condition is stronger than it has been in decades and as the nonprofit pursues a $3 billion expansion in Camden.
Cooper said it would add Norcross to its name but didn’t specify how.
“For more than 50 years, our family has been dedicated to Cooper, and we are so proud to make this contribution to ensure that Cooper and the thousands of talented, committed professionals who make a difference every day for the people of Camden and South Jersey can continue the important work of investing in their future and in Camden’s continued renaissance,” Norcross said in the announcement.
Norcross, chairman of insurance brokerage Conner Strong & Buckelew and a former owner of The Inquirer, was not available for an interview, a spokesperson said.
The money will be used for investments in Camden and throughout Cooper’s South Jersey service area, which stretches to Cape May County since the acquisition of Cape Regional Health System two years ago. Priorities will be education and community programs that create jobs and training, Cooper said.
Cooper had $2.9 billion in revenue last year and $144 million in operating profit. In June 2025, Standard & Poor’s raised Cooper’s credit rate to A+, its highest level ever and a substantial turnaround for a system that was near bankruptcy 25 years ago. The system has more than 14,000 employees.
Norcross’ gift in context
Norcross’ donation matches a $100 million gift in 2021 to St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, now called Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in honor of the donor, Leon Cooperman, a billionaire hedge fund manager.
Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck received a $75 million gift last year.
The Norcross contribution to Cooper is bigger than gifts to other health systems in South Jersey.
Virtua Health said last year that a $5 million pledge from the Marvin Samson Foundation was its largest gift ever. Marvin Samson, a local pharmaceutical entrepreneur, pledged the money for Virtua’s education and workforce development programs, Virtua said.
Deborah Heart & Lung Center received a $5 million gift in 2019, which it called its largest ever. The specialty hospital in Browns Mills received $4 million in 2024.
In Philadelphia, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts and his wife, Aileen, are giving Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia $125 million and will have their name on the nonprofit’s new $2.59 billion patient tower expected to open in late 2028, CHOP said last year. It was CHOP’s largest gift ever.
Also last year, Penn Medicine received a $120 million gift from Catherine and Anthony Clifton and renamed its new, $1.6 billion Pavilion at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania the Clifton Center for Medical Breakthroughs.
Norcross family ties to Cooper
The Norcross family has deep ties to Cooper starting with Norcross’ father, George E. Norcross Jr., a labor leader who was on the Cooper Hospital board from 1976 to 1983. He died in 1998.
Norcross III joined the Cooper board two years later and has been chair since 2006.
Norcross’ mother, Anne Carol Conner Norcross, gave birth to four sons — George, John, Donald, and Philip — at Cooper. She devoted years of her life to helping seniors and underserved Camden residents, Cooper said. She died in 2016.
Philip A. Norcross is vice chairman of Cooper’s board of directors and chairman of the Cooper Foundation. Alessandra “Lexie” Triem Norcross, George Norcross III’s daughter, is also on the Cooper Foundation board.
Cooper’s expansion
In addition to acquiring Cape Regional and embarking on a major expansion of its Camden campus, Cooper has been expanding its network of outpatient facilities in suburban South Jersey.
It spent $150 million to open a three-story facility in a former Sears at Moorestown Mall in late 2023. In the year following the Cape Regional acquisition, Cooper added cardiology, oncology, and orthopedics specialists care to those offices in Cape May County.
In June, Cooper said it plans to build a $300 million outpatient facility in Gloucester Township and expects to start seeing its first patients in specialties like cardiology, neurology, and oncology in 2029.
