Leslie Cameron Devereaux was born on Oct. 2, 1942, to Adelyn Brockway and Richard (Dick) C. Devereaux. She spent summers and winters at the family vacation home on the Au Sable River, where she first developed a deep love and appreciation of nature and wildlife. Devereaux attended Seaholm High School in Birmingham, Michigan, and earned her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. As a graduation present, her parents sent Devereaux and a cousin to Europe, where she contracted encephalitis. After several years in an East Coast medical facility, she returned to Michigan.
“She fought back,” said her attorney, Curtis Mann. “She got around slowly on a walker with her dog Ding-a-ling. She never complained.
“In 1985, the family business that started in 1905 was sold, which was the source of a lot of wealth,” Mann recalled.
Dick had passed away years before from lung cancer. In his memory, Adelyn and Leslie set up the Richard C. Devereaux Foundation.
“Leslie wanted to help causes that were important to her,” Mann said.
Those causes included the Detroit Zoo (she was particularly proud of the award-winning Devereaux Tiger Forest at the Detroit Zoo, considered to be one of the country’s finest zoological exhibits), the Devereaux Memorial Library in Grayling, the Deering Library at Northwestern University, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute.
Karmanos approached Devereaux to support a new Mobile Cancer Screening Program, which her largesse helped get on the road. As Karmanos’ needs changed, she continued to support experimental cancer research, which she found intriguing. A waiting room at Karmanos’ main campus location in Detroit bears the Richard C. Devereaux Foundation name. Her estate most recently made the establishment of an Endowed Chair for Lung Cancer Research possible to support cancer investigations further.
Devereaux is remembered for her kind and generous heart and love of her community. A humble yet renowned philanthropist, she served as president of the Richard C. Devereaux Foundation until her death and strongly supported many worthy organizations in a variety of different areas.
Leslie Cameron Devereaux died on Sept. 27, 2024, at 81 years old.
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