Visionary gift helps to expand Bascom Palmer Eye Institute’s acclaimed ophthalmic care across South Florida

Throughout her life, Isabel Collier Read remained dedicated to helping all people of Florida achieve equal access to quality health care. A New Jersey native, Collier Read was particularly committed to charitable causes in Collier County, Florida, a region to which she had a familial connection. Her first husband, Miles Collier, was the son of advertising magnate Barron G. Collier, whose vast land holdings in Florida comprise the majority of what is now Collier and Hendry counties. After Miles Collier’s death in 1954, Isabel married William A. Read Jr. and later established a family foundation for philanthropic activities.

Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, the nation’s No. 1 eye care hospital for the past eight years, first extended its reach into Palm Beach County in 1996. A $6.3 million gift from Collier Read helped the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute at Palm Beach Gardens move to a new facility in 2006 that tripled its size and greatly expanded sight-saving service to Florida residents north of Miami.

Collier Read also was a benefactor of the PACE Center for Girls in Immokalee, Florida, and the Isabel Collier Read Immokalee Health Park, which provides much-needed health care for the region’s underserved migrant worker population. She was a founder of Planned Parenthood in Immokalee and was active with the Planned Parenthood chapter in Palm Beach.

*Deceased

Member of Gables Giving Society