January 17, 2008 New Coaches Fund Supports UO Libraries Effort to strengthen connection between academics and athletics draws full participation. :: READ MORE :: SEE PICTURES Fund Honoring Professor Emeritus Roger Nicholls An endowment to help graduate students is a fitting memorial to Professor Emeritus Roger Nicholls. Faculty and staff members can be a part of it. :: READ MORE Tomorrow's Teacher Thanks to private gifts, UO senior Julie Thompson is fulfilling her dream of becoming a grade school teacher. :: READ MORE Villard Hall, Winter 2003. Photo by Lori Howard. Fund Honoring Professor Emeritus Roger Nicholls Will Help Graduate Students "Get It Done!" Help for graduate students—it's a fitting tribute to a scholar who loved teaching as much as he loved the works of Thomas Mann and Friedrich Nietzsche. And faculty and staff members can participate. Professor Emeritus Roger Nicholls died of myelodysplasia at age eighty-five last August. His wife, Barbara, a retired UO academic adviser, gave $14,000 to establish a memorial fund for graduate students. More donors have stepped up. Barbara hopes the endowment will reach $75,000, enough to yield $3,000 annually for student support. A former department head and director of graduate studies in German, Roger Nicholls helped build the German graduate program. Roger may be remembered by most for Fonda, an enormous German shepherd who accompanied him to work, says Barbara. Former students and colleagues remember a demanding but kind scholar with a penchant for gentle irony. Former student Eleanore Cervantes recalls how Roger calmed her nerves before her Ph.D. oral exam, telling her he liked one of her papers so much he read it to his wife. Peter Gontrum, who followed Nicholls as department chair, remembers asking him how to handle a crisis. Roger paused for a long time. Then he said, "Do nothing." It turned out to be the best advice for that particular circumstance, says Gontrum. The Roger Nicholls Memorial Endowment Fund will support outstanding graduate students in German, enabling them to spend a term focusing on their dissertations. Even before he was a professor, says Barbara, he would encourage his colleagues to finish up their dissertations and move on. "He'd say 'For heavens' sake, just get it done! It's not War and Peace! ' " :: BACK TO TOP       :: GIVE NOW Aspiration + Perspiration + Scholarship = Elementary School Teacher "I walked onto this campus as a freshman knowing I wanted to be an elementary school teacher," says UO senior Julie Thompson. "And I will walk off with the same dream." Thanks to private gifts—and hard work—that dream is coming true. The education major made the dean's list seven times and maintains a 3.90 GPA. She's also put in her time in the trenches, gaining practicum experience at Adams Elementary School, working at the Child Care and Development Center, and volunteering. Without her Staton Scholarship, says Thompson, she would not be here. Each year, twenty-five Robert W. and Bernice Ingalls Staton Scholarships are awarded to incoming freshmen who demonstrate financial need. "It's such a gift," says Thompson. "It's more than a degree. It's a chance to change the world and have a productive life." Thompson starts graduate school this June, then she can't wait to teach. "You don't teach for the paycheck at the end of the month," she says. "You do it for the smiles and the hugs. And those moments when the light bulb goes off." :: BACK TO TOP New Coaches Fund Supports UO Libraries A new coaches fund to support the University of Oregon Libraries has drawn 100 percent participation from UO head athletics coaches in its first year and will benefit all students. The annual fund will be used to build library collections and keep up with changing technology. The fund is part of an ongoing effort by the athletics department and UO Libraries, which both serve the entire campus and the broader community, to build bridges between academics and athletics. "It's incredible," said Philip H. Knight Dean of UO Libraries Carver Deb Carver, of the coaches' contributions. "Their response was immediate. Apparently, we struck a positive chord. My sense was that they'd been interested in giving to the academic side of the university for a long time but didn't know the best avenue." Coaches and athletic administrators made personal gifts totaling $25,000, which was matched by donor Dave Petrone, a 1966 graduate and longtime supporter of both athletics and academics at the university, and his wife, Nancy. "A great library is really at the heart of any great university and we are fortunate to have such a tremendous resource in the Knight Library," said Vin Lananna, associate athletics director and director of men's and women's track. "I'm pleased to participate in the Coaches Fund in the UO Libraries to support an exciting future for our library and our university." A luncheon to celebrate the launch of the new fund and thank the coaches for their donations was held January 16 in Knight Library. "It was a pretty easy decision for me just based on the fact that education is my number-one priority and has been ever since I was a little kid, and the library in a small town was where you got to see the world," said head women's basketball coach Bev Smith, who remembers weekly trips to the library in Salmon Arm, British Columbia, seeking the latest Curious George book. Donor Dave Petrone, of Palo Alto, California, said he and his wife decided to match the coaches fund because it brings together the athletics and academic sides of the university. "The coaches fund was one of the better gift ideas that's ever been presented to us because it has the athletics department working together to give to the academic side of the university," said Petrone. Carver said the new fund was inspired by a $25,000 gift to the UO Libraries from head football coach Mike Bellotti and his family in 2002 to support innovative use of technology. The Bellotti gift, which was matched by the athletics department and the College of Arts and Sciences, created an endowment that is now worth about $100,000. The Bellotti endowment has funded such improvements as transfer of library music collections to digital format, making them more accessible to students and faculty members; a new system for Internet delivery of articles from other libraries; new software, computers, and monitors for student use; new project management software to improve access to scholarly materials; and additional digital storage space for rare photographs and documents. :: BACK TO TOP Recent Gifts to Campaign Oregon Following are just a few of the many recent contributions from private donors to Campaign Oregon: Transforming Lives: Anonymous—$225,000 pledge for the Oregon Bach Festival Saltzman Endowment and the Conductor's Fund. Ewart M. Baldwin—$82,017 to a charitable remainder annuity for the Museum of Natural and Cultural History. Spencer Brush—$200,000 pledge to the Ford Alumni Center and the Spencer Brush Faculty Endowment Fund in the Department of History. Carolyn Chambers–Chambers Family Foundation—$75,000 for the Law and Entrepreneurship Center. Ellen Cougill—$30,908 for the Glenn and Ellen Cougill Presidential Scholarship. Leona and Robert DeArmond—$316,800 to the UO Venture Development Fund. The Duck Store—$25,000 pledge for the Master of Fine Arts Exhibit Fund in the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art. Michele Longo Eder and Robert Eder—$100,000 to the UO Venture Development Fund. Otto Fried—Eight paintings valued at $110,000 to the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. Phyllis and Paul Goebel—$50,000 for the Lundquist College of Business Investor's Fund. Susie Hagemeister and Mark Martin—$25,000 pledge to the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. John Herman—$25,000 pledge for the Ford Alumni Center. Katie and Raymond Honerlah—$254,743 to the College of Arts and Sciences for the Paul Olum Endowment in mathematics, the Katie Mespelt Honerlah and Raymond Honerlah Endowed Fund for Faculty Support, and the Honerlah Teaching Assistants Endowment Fund. Robin and John Jaqua Fund—$585,700 pledge to the College of Education Building Fund. Jodi Kahn and Fred Poust—$100,000 pledge for the Ford Alumni Center and the Kahn-Poust Family Endowment for UO Libraries. Herbert Kariel—$250,000 for the Herbert G. Kariel Geography Faculty Fellowship. Daniel and Mariel Kingsley—$75,000 pledge to establish the Daniel and Mariel Kingsley Geography Fellowship. Tina and Dr. Jay Lamb—$25,000 pledge to the Library Fund. Gerri and Richard Leeds—$110,244 to establish the Leeds Travel Fund in International Programs. Robin and Robert Mesher—$25,000 to establish the Robert and Robin Mesher Scholarship in Accounting. Hattie Mae Nixon—$103,000 for textile preservation at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art and the Museum of Natural and Cultural History, for the purchase of cultural and art-related books by UO Libraries, and for metalsmithing and jewelry programs in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. Judy Fosdick Oliphant—$500,000 pledge to create the Judy Fosdick Oliphant Study-Abroad Scholarship in International Studies. Bernard Osher Foundation—$50,000 pledge for the Osher Reentry Scholarship Program. Nancy and David Petrone—$25,000 to the Library Coaches Fund. Michelle and Gregory Quesnel—$153,513 to establish the Quesnel Family Presidential Scholarship. The Raymund Foundation–Steve and Sonia Raymund—$100,000 for the Conflict and Dispute Resolution Program in the School of Law. Ginny and Roger Reich—$25,000 to establish the Roger and Ginny Reich Scholarship for honors college students studying abroad. Jim and Shirley Rippey—$50,000 to the UO Foundation Scholarship Fund. Florence and James Shephard—$150,000 pledge to the Robert D. Clark Honors College Fund for renovations. Connie and George Slape—$25,000 pledge to the Department of Economics. Mary Lou and Marty Smith—$200,000 pledge for the James H. Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. Eileen Stamile—$50,841 unrestricted gift to the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. Ann and Bill Swindells—Painting valued at $65,000 to the College of Education. Terry and David Taylor—$33,303 for the Terry and Dave Taylor Library Collections Endowment. Linda and Robert Turner—$50,000 to the Gilbert-Peterson Hall Renovation Fund in the Lundquist College of Business. Venerable Group—$150,000 pledge to establish the Venerable Historic Preservation Program Fund in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts. Ellyne and James Warsaw—$310,000 pledge to the James H. Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. The Warsaw Family Trust—$250,000 pledge for the James H. Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. 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