Newest endowed chairs support chemistry, honor Ikenberry

Chancellor Michael Aiken announced the creation of three
endowed chairs last month.

The James R. Eiszner Distinguished Chair and the Murchison-
Mallory Chair will be awarded to faculty in the department
of chemistry. The Stanley O. Ikenberry Endowed Chair will
rotate among departments on the Urbana-Champaign campus.

The $3 million Eiszner gift will create the largest endowed
chair to be supported by a single individual on the Urbana-
Champaign campus and the first fully funded chair in the
department of chemistry. Joyce Eiszner established the
endowment to honor her late husband and his high regard for
the undergraduate education he received at the UI.

"The Eiszner Chair will allow us to recruit and retain a
scholar of Nobel Prize caliber," said Paul Bohn, head of the
department of chemistry.

James Eiszner earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry from
the UI in 1950. He worked for CPC International Inc., based
in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., and is credited with transforming
the company into an aggressive marketer of some of America's
favorite foods, including Skippy peanut butter and Hellman's
mayonnaise.

The Murchison-Mallory Chair is named in honor of UI alumnus
Meredith Mallory and his late wife Patricia Murchison, who
died in 1980.

Mallory believes in the importance of training students in
the physical sciences. His $1.25 million gift will help
support a faculty member who will address fundamental
pedagogical issues in delivering chemistry instruction to a
wide range of students in fields such as engineering and
medicine as well as chemistry.

"The Murchison-Mallory Chair is important because it will
stress the intimate relationship between a robust research
life and dedication to teaching," Bohn said.

Mallory studied chemistry at the UI and earned a bachelor's
degree in science and letters in 1940. He earned a medical
degree at Tulane University in 1944 and the same year became
a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

Mallory left the Army in 1954 and joined the Murchison
family's oil and gas business as an independent producer. He
now is president of Mallory Investments, based in San
Antonio.

The Stanley O. Ikenberry Endowed Chair was established in
honor of the retiring UI president. The chair will rotate
among departments on the Urbana campus; recipients will be
chosen by a faculty committee. The $1.25 million endowment
is funded by gifts made to the UI Foundation for
unrestricted use.

"An important advantage of a named endowed chair is that it
will honor the person in perpetuity," Aiken said. "It is a
superb way to honor people who have made significant
contributions to the UI, and it is a fitting tribute to
Stanley Ikenberry, to whom this university owes a great
deal. It is also an important way to recognize the faculty
members who hold the chair."