Parting Gift

When Barbara Barnstable Edelman first met client Bill Gatton in 2019, she felt an instant bond with the businessman. “Our shared love for the University of Kentucky sparked a strong connection, beginning an attorney-client relationship that turned into a friendship,” says the business litigator at Dinsmore & Shohl in Lexington, Kentucky. 

She advised Gatton on various matters until his passing in 2022, and still advises The Bill Gatton Foundation, which continues his philanthropic efforts. Before his passing, Gatton expressed a desire to show his gratitude to Edelman. 

In 2008, Barbara’s twin sisters Patricia Barnstable Brown and Priscilla Barnstable, along with their mother, Wilma, had established the UK Barnstable Brown Diabetes Center for research, in memory of Patricia’s husband, David, who passed away in 2003 from complications of diabetes. 

Last May, at the center’s annual Diabetes and Obesity Research Day, which welcomes doctors and scientists from across the country, the trustee of The Bill Gatton Foundation made a surprise appearance to announce a donation. “When I heard ‘$16 million,’ I started crying,” recalls Edelman.

The money was used to launch The Barbara B. Edelman Endowed Faculty Fund to support chairs and professorships to expand research and clinical care at UK; to fund breakthroughs in diabetes care and treatment, and to fund scholarships for Kentucky residents pursuing careers as registered dieticians with an interest in diabetes care.

Edelman had never talked extensively about her family’s work to Gatton. “I was completely blown away,” she says.