PUBLICATIONS Inside Illinois Vol. 21, No. 8, Oct. 18, 2001

Thirteen gifts totaling more than $17 million to benefit UI
Thirteen gifts totaling more than $17 million earmarked for UI programs at Urbana-Champaign and Chicago were announced Oct. 5 at the UI Foundation’s 66th Annual Meeting.

The gift announcements were part of the three-day meeting on the Urbana-Champaign campus conducted by the Foundation, the university’s private gift fund-raising arm.

The donations to benefit the Urbana-Champaign campus:

• A deferred gift of more than $5 million from Kenneth and Vesta Stark of Pittsfield, Ill., will create scholarships in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences. Preference will be given to students from Pike County and those whose undue hardships have negatively affected their studies. The Starks own farmland and banking interests in west Central Illinois.
• A $2.5 million gift from Advanced Micro Devices of Sunnyvale, Calif., will create the W.J. "Jerry" Sanders III – Advanced Micro Devices Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering. Sanders, a 1958 electrical engineering graduate, co-founded AMD in 1969 and serves as its chairman of the board and CEO. AMD is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of integrated circuits.
• A $2 million deferred gift from Bob and Alice Campbell of Los Angeles, Calif., will establish the Alice Curtis Campbell Endowed Chair in Law, help support the Michael Aiken Chair, and create the Alice C. and Robert C. Campbell Scholarships through the James Newton Matthews Scholars Program. The Campbells also are providing matching funds for gifts to purchase bells for the Altgeld Carillon. The Campbells, both retired from the Robert Campbell Co., are alumni of the UI – he in commerce and she in law.
• A $2 million estate commitment from Ed and Barbara Rowe of Racine, Wis., will significantly enhance the Edward, Barbara and David Rowe Scholarship Fund in the James Newton Matthews Scholars Program. Ed Rowe, a 1946 economics graduate, retired from J.I. Case Co. Barbara Rowe is a Northwestern University graduate. The couple established the scholarship in memory of their son, David.
• A $1.1 million bequest from Chester W. and Nadine C. Houston of Urbana will support fellowships and/or faculty support in the department of microbiology and the department of cell and structural biology while a smaller amount provides unrestricted support to the Graduate School of Library and Information Science and the University Library. Chester Houston, who earned his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the UI, retired as a professor in microbiology from the University of Rhode Island. Nadine Houston, who earned a bachelor’s degree in library science and a master’s degree in microbiology from the UI, was a librarian and coordinator of instructional media, primarily in Rhode Island public schools.
• A deferred gift in excess of $1 million from C.J. "Joe" Gauthier of Salem, Ill., will establish the C.J. Gauthier Program for Exploratory Studies in the department of mechanical and industrial engineering. A 1943 UI graduate, Joe Gauthier retired as president, CEO and director of NICOR Inc.
• A $1 million deferred gift from Kim and Michelle Pollock of Thousand Oaks, Calif., will support scholarships, programs and services in the Division of Rehabilitation-Education Services at Urbana-Champaign. Kim Pollock, a 1971 Urbana electrical engineering graduate and member of the famed UI "Gizz Kids" wheelchair basketball team that won two national championships, recently retired as an executive in information systems.
• A $1 million gift from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation will fund creation of the master’s program in Technology and Management and the Alan M. Hallene Endowment for Leadership in Technology and Management. T&M is a joint effort of the colleges of Commerce and Business Administration and Engineering at Urbana-Champaign. Al Hallene, a member of the MacArthur Foundation Board of Directors, and his wife, Phyllis, are UI graduates.
• A $500,000 estate commitment from Karin Dovring of Urbana will create the Karin and Folke Dovring Scholars Program in Analysis of International Propaganda and Persuasion in War and Peace in the Institute of Communications Research. Dovring is a noted scholar, author and poet; her late husband was a renowned professor of land economics in the UI College of Agriculture.
• A deferred gift of $500,000 from
  J. Fred and Donna Giertz of Champaign will benefit the Krannert Art Museum, with half the funding to provide unrestricted support and the other half to support the museum’s education and resource center, to be renamed the Fred and Donna Giertz Education Center. Fred Giertz is a professor of economics and a member of the UI Institute of Government and Public Affairs. Donna Giertz is a marketing and management professor at Parkland College.
• Champaign resident Jack S. Baker, a professor emeritus in the School of Architecture , has made a deferred gift of $350,000 in support of the School of Architecture and the department of dance. The gift to architecture will fund a visiting fellow who will interact with students and faculty members in a variety of settings such as the classroom, lectures and public forums. The Dance Fund, made in memory of former department head Margaret Erlanger and in honor of Patricia Knowles, the recently retired head of the department, will support professional enrichment in the dance department.
• Deferred and outright gifts totaling more $500,000 from Sidney M. Stafford, a Champaign resident and UI accountancy graduate who worked in the university’s Office of Business Affairs for many years, will fund the Timothy Collins Stafford Scholarship. Tim Stafford Scholarships will be awarded to undergraduates in elementary education who have delayed college for several years due to life’s challenges such as personal or financial hardship. Sidney’s son, Tim, a single father who successfully balanced family, work and school responsibilities en route to his graduation in 1999 from the UI College of Education, died suddenly on Dec. 29, 2000, not long after beginning a job as a fourth grade teacher at Dr. Howard Elementary School in Champaign.