“Can’t solve all the world’s problems,” Joan Gillings once said, “But we can try.”
So reads the obituary of Joan Suzanne Heckler Gillings, who died on Feb. 18, according to an obitiuary published by her family on Feb. 28.
Ms. Gillings was married to Dennis Gillings who founded the life science company Quintiles in 1982. The Gillings were divorced in 2011.
The rise of Quintiles, which merged with IMS Health in 2016 to become Iqvia, made the Gillings very wealthy. and Ms. Gillings was a very active plilanthropist.
“She made voluntary and advisory contributions to the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, UNC Children’s Hospital, The North Carolina Museum of Art, the North Carolina Botanical Gardens, Kenan Institute Asia, the Opera House Theater Company in Wilmington, and the Wrightsville Beach Museum, and offered ongoing support to numerous local and international initiatives with focuses on wellness, housing, literacy, and youth development programs,” the obituary notes.