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The King Awards: Long may they reign

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 02:05:21 +0000

The King Awards: Long may they reign Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/11/2023 - 20:05

Daniel Long

The King Awards and Exhibition have been celebrating CU Boulder students’ artwork for more than a decade

When asked what inspired her to create the King Awards, which honors the artwork of CU Boulder students, Gretchen King (English and fine arts, ‘59) points in an unexpected direction.

“It was the government’s idea, in a way,” she says. “When I turned 70-and-a-half years old, I had to withdraw a certain amount of money from my IRA by Dec. 31 or else face a penalty.”

A penalty didn’t sound like fun, so she did as she was told and withdrew the money. But then she wasn’t quite sure what to do with it.

At the top of the page:Shloka Dhar (MCDB and fine arts, ‘22) won second place in 2021 and first place in 2022. Above: Gretchen King (left) and Kevin King (right) at the 2014 King Awards and Exhibition, along with two student winners. Photo courtesy of Gretchen King.

She admits she could have bought something nice for herself, gone on a luxurious vacation, treated her friends and family to expensive dinners at Boulder’s swankiest restaurants. But those things didn’t feel right. She wanted the money to be useful, to make a difference in people’s lives.

So she donated it to her alma mater and continued to do so regularly thereafter.

Then in 2012, art professor Yumi Janairo Roth, the interim chair of the Art and Art History Department at the time, had an idea.

She remembered that her undergraduate institution, The School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts, held several competitions and exhibitions that brought in a lot of diverse student work. “External jurors were invited to select the winning works, and students felt extremely motivated to participate,” she says.

She therefore suggested that King fund something similar at CU Boulder.

King thought this idea sounded superb. “As soon as I heard that, I said, ‘That’s it!’” she recalls.

Thus, the following year, in 2013, the King Awards were born, and they’re still going strong today.

“It came about so organically,” says Amber Story (art history, ‘99), director of development for the College of Arts and Sciences. “It just kind of happened, and now it’s this big thing, and it’s been going on for 10 years!”

Story adds that the King Awards and Exhibition “have become a cornerstone event for the Department of Art and Art History. Not only have they created a collaborative environment within the entire department … but they’ve also provided outward-facing, meaningful experiences for our students.”

The awards are divided into two categories, one for graduate students and one for undergraduate students. This year, each category will confer five honors: first place ($3,000), second place ($2,000), third place ($1,000) and two honorable mentions ($500 apiece).

“The cash was nothing to sneeze at,” says Marcella Marsella, a graduate student in art and art history who won second place in 2022. “The money from the King Award meant that I could pay all of my bills and have a bit left over to buy art supplies.”

Shloka Dhar (MCDB and fine arts, ‘22), an undergraduate who won second place in 2021 and first place in 2022, agrees. “The financial assistance provided by the King Award encouraged me to continue my studies in art [and] allowed me to focus more on schoolwork [and] purchase necessary supplies for my projects,” she says.

But both Marsella and Dhar say that the impact of the King Awards goes beyond the money.

“Winning the King Award … gave me a chance for more people to hear the story of me and my family,” says Dhar, whose work explores the complex history of her identity. “[It] encouraged me to do more and aim higher. I felt a great sense of inclusion and community.”

“Winning the King Award was significant,” says Marsella. “Artwork is judged in so many nonsensical ways in an endless variety of contexts. I believe a fair approach in judging artwork is by its merit, which is what I believe the curators who selected my work did.”

The jurors for the King Awards are carefully selected arts professionals, people with deep knowledge and years of experience. In 2022, for example, they were Miranda Lash, the Ellen Bruss Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, and Simone Krug, curator of the Aspen Art Museum.

This year, they’re ceramic artist and curator Sam Harvey of Aspen; David Smith, owner of the David B. Smith Gallery in Denver; and Molly Bird Casey, chief curator of NINE dot ARTS, an art consulting and placemaking organization headquartered in Denver.

Receiving recognition from such figures, Marsella says, was “emotionally validating.”

Once the jurors select the winning pieces, those pieces are then featured in an exhibition at the Visual Arts Complex, which this year will take place from April 12-20.

For King, however, the most enjoyable aspect of the gift-giving is not the exhibition itself, gratifying as that is. It’s visiting the artists in their studios. “That for me is the really fun part.”

Yet it was even more fun for another member of the King family—Kevin King (fine arts and philosophy, ’81), the second of King’s five children and a lifelong patron of the arts, whom King recruited to head up the awards beginning the second year.

Kevin King relished the opportunity, his mother says. “He really mingled with the artists, and they loved it. I’d have to drag him out of the studios!”

Dhar vividly remembers Kevin King’s keen interest in and observant eye for her and her fellow contestants’ work. “You could tell he was passionate about the arts and giving to students. He smiled the whole time.”

Kevin King unfortunately died in 2021 after a long battle with brain cancer. His obituary, written by his brother Neil King, longtime writer for The Wall Street Journal and author of the recently published book American Ramble, contains snapshots of a personality particularly well suited to the benefactor of an arts award.

“He was a great giver of silent gifts,” his brother says of him, “ones you didn’t know you’d received until long after he’d given them.”

“People loved him,” says King. “He was really a character.”

Now 89, King is at the reins again and says she’s happy to remain involved with the arts program and to provide both financial and emotional support to its students.

This year, the award ceremony, which Story calls “a celebration of the art department and the work that’s happening there,” will take place in the Visual Arts Complex on Friday, April 14, at 4 p.m. King herself plans to attend, to see the lit-up faces of the students whose lives she continues to change for the better—and not because the government has told her to.

The King Awards and Exhibition have been celebrating CU Boulder students’ artwork for more than a decade.

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Academic family makes $1 million bequest to chemistry department

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 20:52:10 +0000

Academic family makes $1 million bequest to chemistry department Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/01/2022 - 14:52

Bradley Worrell

Couple wanted to give back to the university, saying, ‘CU has been our life’

When Cassandra Geneson says of herself and her husband, Professor Dave Walba, “CU has been our life,” she means it literally.

Walba started as an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder back in 1977. During his 45 years at the university, he, in collaboration with faculty in the Department of Physics, helped pioneer the field of ferroelectric liquid crystals (a display technology for screens), helped found the chemistry department’s Materials and Nanoscience Program, co-founded two companies based upon CU Boulder’s liquid crystal research, won several distinguished honors for teaching, and served for several years as the chair of the chemistry department.

For her part, Geneson worked in the Science Library at CU Boulder from 1977 through 1985 after graduating from the university in 1976 with a bachelor’s degree with distinction in anthropology, which she says was one of the most transformational experiences of her life.

At the top of the page: Cristol Chemistry at CU Boulder. Above: Walba and Geneson at their wedding reception in 1981 (left) and the couple from earlier this year (right).

“My years in the Department of Anthropology was just an eye opener. It made me understand the diversity of the world and how important it is and how interesting it is,” she says. “And, I had great professors, many of whom I remained friends with years after graduation. So, it was just a really important time for me.”

Walba says that after the couple married and he became chair of the department in 2006, Geneson proved to be indispensable at arranging faculty events that helped to bond members of the chemistry department.

“When I was chair, she was like a co-chair,” he says. “She was running all these department functions, and it was a really good time for the department. There was a lot of collegiality—and Cassandra had a lot to do with that.”

Even after working for more than four decades at the university, Walba has no immediate plans to retire. Still, the couple has given considerable thought to the future of CU Boulder—and to the chemistry department in particular—which ultimately prompted them to make a $1 million bequest to the department.

Early days at the university

Walba and Geneson first met at CU Boulder.

She recalls being a young mother, going through a divorce and working at the Science Library when, one day in May 1978, she met Walba, whom she initially mistook for a graduate student. After talking with him a bit and learning he was an assistant professor, she decided it wouldn’t hurt to ask him out for coffee at the student center.

That first date turned into several more, and the couple wed in 1981. Last year, they celebrated their 40th anniversary.

“The chemistry department has been like a family to us,” Geneson says, adding, “When Dave and I married, the whole chemistry department came to our reception.”

She says that she has always been interested in her husband’s work. In fact, she says that when they were dating, she would sometimes sneak into his classes to observe him teaching.

“Dave was a fabulous professor,” she says. “I was dazzled by his ability to relate complex ideas in ways that could be easily grasped by his students.”

You can be middle class like us and still give a gift. ... The amount isn’t what’s important."

Walba says teaching has always been fulfilling, but he adds that doing research on liquid crystals and starting companies based upon that technology has been especially rewarding.

He and CU Boulder physics Professor Noel Clark—who first brought liquid crystal research to CU Boulder—have collaborated on numerous research projects over the years, two of which they spun off into businesses.

Walba says the timing on the launch of their first company, Displaytech, founded in the early 1980s, was particularly fortuitous, as Congress had recently passed the Bayh-Dole Act, which allowed entities receiving government funding for their research to retain the rights to their work. (Previously, the government mandated that any research that made use of federal funding had to remain in the public domain, meaning work accomplished on a university campus couldn’t be patented.)

“It was a rush,” Walba says of launching the company. “Cassandra and I both enjoyed that era (the 1980s). For one thing, it was the first time we could afford to go out to dinner,” Walba says with a laugh, and Geneson concurs with a chuckle.

Walba says that he has never considered leaving CU Boulder, in large part because of his longtime partnership with Clark.

The two men were co-founders of the Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, which received several million dollars in funding from the National Science Foundation over the years, with generous matching funds from CU Boulder, and which brought together professors with expertise in the areas of physics, engineering and chemistry to do research on materials chemistry.

Much of the focus of the LCMRC was on ferroelectric liquid crystals, which are organic materials that are in some ways liquid and in some ways solid, making them ideal for information-display applications such as computers, cell phones and watches.

CU Boulder chemistry professors: a history of giving

The $1 million bequest by Chemistry Professor Dave Walba and his wife, Cassandra Geneson, is the most recent in a long line of CU Boulder chemistry professors making generous donations to the chemistry and biochemistry departments.

The late Professor Stanley Cristol, a pioneer of physical organic chemistry, donated $1 million to the university; the university re-named what had been called the Chemistry Building as the Cristol Chemistry building in his honor.
Marvin Caruthers, a Distinguished Professor of biochemistry and one of the founders of the biotech firm Amgen, donated tens of millions of dollars to the university to have the biosciences building built. The building was named the Jennie Smoly Caruthers Building in honor of Marvin Caruther’s late wife, Jennie.
Robert Sievers, a professor emeritus of chemistry, former CU regent and former director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, and his wife, Nancy, also have made significant contributions to CU Boulder.

“That was extremely important for the university,” Walba says of the LCMRC, which he says resulted in CU Boulder’s being a leader in the field. “It’s impossible to over-estimate how important it was.”

Separately, Walba was instrumental in creating the chemistry’s Materials and Nanoscience Program when research into nanoscience was still in its infancy.

Meanwhile, over the years, Walba has been recognized with several awards for teaching, including the prestigious Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teach-Scholar Award, dedicated to the advancement of the chemical sciences.

“Recognition is nice, but that’s not the reason I do what I do,” says Walba. “The best thing is the exciting nature of the work and the colleagues I get to work with.”

The chemistry of philanthropic faculty

Summarizing his time at CU Boulder, Walba says, “It’s been a remarkable journey.” He says when he and his wife thought about the future and decided to make a will, they wanted to give a meaningful gift to the chemistry department.

“I supported the gift,” Geneson adds. “It’s a way for us to give back.”

With the $1 million endowment pledge the couple made this summer, they joined the ranks of other philanthropic faculty in the chemistry department. Together with planned gift commitments from Professor Joseph Michl and his late wife, Sara, and Professor Tad Koch and his wife, Carol, the chemistry department will receive $6.5 million in endowed funding—or more than $250,000 annually in current funds—in perpetuity.

The trio of professors’ gifts each support unique needs in the chemistry department, according to Chemistry Department Chair Wei Zhang. Walba and Geneson chose an unrestricted endowment for the needs of two divisions within the department: organic chemistry and materials and nanoscience. The Michls will establish an endowed faculty chair.

Meanwhile, the Kochs have established an endowed graduate fellowship fund, and Tad Koch’s brother, Gary, a professor of biostatistics at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, will also support the fund, as well as a future bi-annual conference for organic chemistry.

“The Walba (Cassandra B. Geneson and David M. Walba) Endowed Chemistry Funds will help the department in many important ways, such as purchasing new equipment to meet teaching and research needs, supporting student travel to conferences, funding support to attract top graduate students to the department, and/or bringing world class speakers to the department for seminars and colloquiums,” Zhang says.

“Together with prior Koch Endowed Fellowship Fund and Michl Endowed Chair in Chemistry Fund, these generous donations will strongly support the department's pursuit of excellence and help create extraordinary academic and research opportunities for students and faculty.”

These gifts build on a tradition of generosity by CU Boulder chemistry professors (see “CU Boulder chemistry professors: a history of giving”).

Geneson says she hopes the bequest she and her husband are leaving to the chemistry department will send a message to others about the value of giving—whether the gift is big or small.

“You can be middle class like us and still give a gift,” she says. “The amount isn’t what’s important.”

Couple wanted to give back to the university, saying, ‘CU has been our life.’

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‘Little decisions influenced my life’

Anonymous — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 22:57:35 +0000

‘Little decisions influenced my life’ Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 04/21/2022 - 16:57

Clay Bonnyman Evans

CU Boulder grad Patricia Sheffels establishes keynote-speaker program to address environmental issues

Patricia Sheffels vividly remembers the day she was called down to the front of “one of those steep lecture halls” during a geography final at the University of Colorado Boulder in the mid-1950s.

The freshman from California took seriously Professor Tim Kelley’s admonition that anyone caught cheating by proctors would be summoned, dismissed and flunked. Just 10 minutes into the exam, she and two male students were called.

“I thought, ‘I haven’t cheated. I haven’t looked at anyone else’s paper!’” Sheffels (Geog’58) recalls. “I could barely walk down the stairs; my knees were shaking so badly.”

At the top of the page: Alumna Patricia Sheffels has created Patricia Sheffels Visiting Scholar Keynote Speaker series (Ben Hale). Above: Kyle Powys Whyte, environmental justice professor at the University of Michigan, was the inaugural speaker (Ben Hale).

“You three look pretty confident about this test,” she recalls Kelley saying. But then he smiled and told them they were getting an A in the course, based on their A work on every assignment and the mid-term exam.

And that, Sheffels says, is how she came to major in geography.

“It was a very whimsical reason,” she says with a chuckle.

More than a half-century later, Sheffels continues to show her appreciation for her CU Boulder experience and education through numerous gifts. Most recently, she established a new fund to create the Patricia Sheffels Visiting Scholar Keynote Speaker which brings interdisciplinary scholars to discuss and explore how to solve the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.

The first Sheffels speaker, Professor Kyle Powys Whyte, enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and Professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, presented his talk “Against Crisis Science: Research Futures for Climate and Energy Justice” on March 15.

“It was a really insightful and provocative talk to go along with several other talks and meetings during his multi-day visit,” says Max Boykoff, professor and chair of the Department of Environmental Studies. “I think this is a great tradition starting. It will help students have consistent contact with really top scholars from around the country and the world.”

Sheffels worked with Boykoff and Michelle Gaffga, College of Arts and Sciences director of development, to find a way to support her goal of helping to find ways to address climate change and other critical environmental problems. Her children, Eric Sheffels of Boston and Kristin Simpson of Kirkland, Washington, also contributed to the speaker program.

“Kyle Whyte was available to students, the lecture attendees and the community, and he did an admirable job. I couldn’t have been more pleased with the inaugural event and the speaker,” Patricia Sheffels says.

Sheffels grew up in Riverside, California, daughter of a dean at Riverside Junior College (now Riverside City College) and a public-school teacher. Active in dance, she took a job as summer stock at the Perry-Mansfield performing arts camp in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, when she was a teenager.

“I did that for two summers. I liked Colorado, and I was also learning to ski, so, totally unadvised, I applied to CU,” she recalls.

I think the keynote speaker series is a great tradition starting. It will help students have consistent contact with really top scholars from around the country and the world.”

It turned out to be the perfect choice for her. She met her former husband at CU Boulder.

Her advisor Kelley stepped in once again to give her a boost when she asked him to write a letter of recommendation for a teaching job in Great Falls, Montana, where she was moving with her husband after graduation. Unsure whether Kelley had written the letter, she tentatively reminded him of her request.

“He slapped his hand on the table and said, ‘Pat, you’re going to get a job! The superintendent of schools in Great Falls was my fraternity brother at the University of Washington, and I told him to give you a job,’” she says. “I think your college years to a very large extent shape the rest of your life, not only the people you meet, but the ideas and knowledge you gain. CU became a real family to me.”

And while Sheffels doesn’t make a big deal of it, she also used to “commute” between Boulder and Southern California with actor Robert Redford, a member of her husband’s fraternity during his year at CU.

“We shared gas expenses,” Sheffels says circumspectly, noting only that the famous actor and activist was not above the sort of shenanigans one often expects of college students.

CU Boulder grad Patricia Sheffels establishes keynote-speaker program to address environmental issues.

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‘She is gold’

Anonymous — Fri, 18 Mar 2022 21:43:22 +0000

‘She is gold’ Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 03/18/2022 - 15:43

Clay Bonnyman Evans

CU Boulder graduate Rose Ann Bershenyi’s ‘gifts are transformative’

The list of Rose Ann Bershenyi’s significant gifts to the University of Colorado Boulder is impressively long.

Bershenyi (Art’66; MFA’69), who grew up in Boulder and spent her career as an art teacher specializing in jewelry and metalsmithing at then-Baseline Junior High School, has focused her many gifts over the years at arts programs.

“I wanted to make a difference for programs that don’t always receive gifts and students who may have a hard time getting a scholarship. Too often moneys aren’t available to the arts and people in the arts,” says Bershenyi, whose mother was a scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder.

Beyond art, Bershenyi has also given to Inside the Greenhouse Project, which works to deepen our understanding of how climate change-related issues are and can be communicated. The project does this by creatively communicating the complex topic through interactive theatre, film, fine art, performance art and television programming.

At the top of the page: Rose Ann Bershenyi meets with a few recipients of the many gifts she’s provided over the years at the College of Arts & Sciences Scholarship Brunch in 2018. Photo by Amber Story. Above: The Martyr, from the series Unofficial Portraits by Hung Liu, is part of the Sharkive, whose presence at CU Boulder was made possible in part through a gift by Rose Ann Bershenyi.

She has created endowed scholarships for students in art and art history, theatre and dance, the CU in D.C. program, and the Miramontes Arts & Sciences Program (MASP), which is an inclusive academic community for traditionally underrepresented and/or first-generation college students.

Bershenyi’s gifts have helped many individual students, as well as numerous institutions on campus.

Bershenyi has supported the CU Art Museum’s acquisition of artworks, including a quilt by Gina Adams and the Sharkive, an internationally important collection of prints created in the studio of Bud and Barbara Shark.

“Having (the Sharkive) materials on campus for class use, exhibition and research means that we can offer our visitors access to artwork by internationally known artists made in our own backyard,” says Hope Saska, curator for the CU Art Museum, noting just one example of Bershenyi’s legacy. “The acquisition offers numerous pedagogical opportunities, not only in the range of artists the Sharkive encompasses, but in the way the materials demonstrate artistic process.”

Bershenyi’s generosity was essential in making sure that two important funds reached endowment status: the Art and Art History Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Endowed Scholarship Fund to provide scholarships for students who help diversify the student body, and a fellowship in the dance program to provide support for MFA candidates.

She recently gave to the Center for Native American and Indigenous Studies (CNAIS), and she helped to fully endow two funds that support students of dance.

“I’ve never had a donor like her,” says Amber Story, associate director of development in the Office of Advancement for the College of Arts and Sciences. “Her gifts are transformative. She doesn’t want it to be about her; she just wants to help. She loves CU, loves Boulder, and she trusts the university to do the right thing. She is gold.”

Bershenyi, who now lives in Aurora, is hesitant to put herself in the spotlight, preferring to let her gifts speak for themselves. She says she seeks guidance from Story and others to determine where her donations will have the most impact and expects to continue giving into the foreseeable future.

“I give when I’m inspired, where it’s needed the most, with guidance,” she says.

CU Boulder graduate Rose Ann Bershenyi’s ‘gifts are transformative.’

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Math alum sows seeds of diversity in art

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 01:00:17 +0000

Math alum sows seeds of diversity in art Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/04/2021 - 18:00

Clay Bonnyman Evans

$25K gift establishes Diversity Acquisition Fund at CU Boulder Art Museum

In fall semester 2020, Hope Saska, decided to create a new collection plan for the University of Colorado Boulder Art Museum.

“It’s a document to articulate what we collect and why we collect it, and what our mission is,” says Saska, curator of collections and exhibitions at the museum. “It also is a history of the collection, so we can better understand past motivations.”

Started in the 1940s, the art museum’s collection accumulated over the decades in a broad, general direction. Saska thought it was a good time to sharpen the focus.

At the top of the page: Persuasive Prints (Installation view), CU Art Museum, February 6–March 12, 2020. Photo by Patrick Campbell, © University of Colorado Boulder. Above: Body Language: Picturing People (Installation view), CU Art Museum, July 18, 2019– March 12, 2020. Photo by Patrick Campbell, © University of Colorado Boulder.

“It occurred to me that we should be more intentional about charting a direction for the future, thinking about where opportunities might be to expand, and thinking about diversity was really important,” she says. “We needed to find a clear path, and if we were reimagining, why not be as broad and diverse as possible.”

Enter Ann Bateson, a long-time Boulder resident who earned a PhD in mathematics in 1977 and spent much of her career working at the Center for the Study of Earth From Space—now the Earth Science and Observation Center at CIRES, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science.

A current member of the museum’s collection committee, Bateson made a $25,000 donation as a seed endowment of the new Diversity Acquisition Fund, which will be used to acquire works by historically underrepresented artists such as artists of color, artists with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ artists.

Once fully endowed, the fund will spend 4% of its principal annually to purchase work for the collection.

“Ann’s seed gift will hopefully encourage others to donate, to help the museum develop this aspect of our collection,” Saska says.

“I’m very excited to be a part of it,” Bateson says. “I’m excited that the museum is creating a space that feels inclusive to all students and addresses issues of importance to them.”

I’m excited that the museum is creating a space that feels inclusive to all students and addresses issues of importance to them."

Bateson’s sister is an artist (“but I’m not at all!” she says) and she grew up in Dallas, a significant regional hub for the arts. She’s always been struck by the story of Emma Lee Moss, a domestic worker in Dallas who was able to build her career as an artist only after receiving a small trust fund from her former husband’s mother upon her death.

“She became an accomplished folk artist and built up a reputation,” Bateson says. “But she couldn’t practice and develop her work until she received that support.”

CU Art Museum Exhibition Gallery. Photo by Patrick Campbell, © University of Colorado Boulder.

Because the fund won’t be in a position to purchase art immediately, the museum has designated funds in its interim collection plan to bridge the gap, Saska says.

The museum has already begun developing a network of connections to curators and institutions across the nation to build on their expertise in creating a more diverse collection.

“We are able to have Zoom meetings with artists working in New York or Chicago or Los Angeles, and talking to curators,” she says. “In a strange way, the (COVID-19) pandemic has allowed us to have these conversations; being isolated has encouraged this moment of network building and re-evaluation.”

But Saska says there is already one clear direction for acquisitions: works on paper, building on the $1.35 million 2018 acquisition of the “Sharkive”—750 original works and 2,000 related materials from the Lyons-based printmaking studio started by artists Bud and Barbara Shark in the 1970s, now known as Shark’s Ink.

“There are a lot of artists of color who are printmakers,” says Saska, who wrote her doctoral dissertation at Brown University on 18th-century graphic satire and caricature. “We will be able to acquire this kind of work, in terms of funding, and it’s also very easy to use in teaching. This provides a focus on something that is attainable.”

Works on paper are also easy to use in teaching, will facilitate the museum’s ongoing effort to expand interdisciplinary scholarship and teaching and fit into the university’s efforts to meet the needs of future students.

“Anchored by (the) study of, and interaction with, campus collections of material culture and natural specimens, this academy has the potential to impart skills across disciplines, modeling applications of ‘transfer learning’ where knowledge gained in one domain is applied to another,” Saska wrote with Jessica Brunecky, director of visitor experience and finance at the CU Art Museum in a 2019 paper for the university’s Academic Futures initiative.

While the museum’s diversity fund won’t be dedicated exclusively to works on paper, Saska says building on the Sharkive will make CU Boulder “a real center of gravity for this material, regionally.”

“Sometimes the rap on museums is that they are elite places for only certain types of audience,” she says. “But we’re hoping to get away from that, and this is will help us be more responsive to our community.”

Donations to the CU Boulder Art Museum Diversity Acquisition Fund can be made on the Colorado Giving Page.

$25K gift establishes Diversity Acquisition Fund at CU Boulder Art Museum.

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Born in poverty, alumna became icon of finance

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 20:59:29 +0000

Born in poverty, alumna became icon of finance Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/16/2019 - 13:59

Laura Hiserodt

In her honor, her husband, a marketing exec who helped make Orville Redenbacher a household name, makes $2.5 million gift for scholarships at CU Boulder

Venita VanCaspel lived through the Great Depression in Oklahoma and worked several jobs while in college, and scholarships were invaluable to getting her degree in economics from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1948. Because of a significant gift from her husband, future generations of CU Boulder students can look forward to similar support.

VanCaspel’s husband, Lyttleton “Lyt” Harris, will donate $2.5 million to fund a scholarship program for CU Boulder economics students in honor of his late wife, who passed away in 2011. Harris signed paperwork to establish the endowment, a planned gift, this fall.

Lyttleton "Lyt" Harris pauses in front of Old Main on campus this year. CU Boulder photo by Glenn Asakawa. At the top of the page is an image of him with the late Venita Van Caspel. Photo courtesy of Lyt Harris.

VanCaspel faced many obstacles growing up in Sayre, Okla., during the dust bowl. She excelled in school, graduated valedictorian of her high school class and went on to become the first in her family to attend college.

Knowing she would have to earn scholarships and get jobs during school to pay her tuition, she had a respect for and interest in finance, an interest that prompted her to major in economics at CU Boulder.

“What was interesting is that she was one of the first women to major in economics at CU. And in most of her classes, she was the only female,” Harris said in a recent interview. “She did very well. She ended up graduating with honors.”

And the honors kept coming. In 1987, Venita won CU’s coveted George Norlin Award, which recognizes outstanding alumni, and she later served for more than a decade on the CU Economics Department’s advisory board.

After graduation, VanCaspel became a successful stockbroker in Houston, Texas, despite the challenges of working in a male-dominated field. To overcome that gender obstacle, she built a client base for herself by giving talks at women’s club luncheons.

VanCaspel launched her own stock brokerage firm, VanCaspel and Company Inc., in the early 1970s. It eventually became the largest independently owned brokerage firm in Texas.

VanCaspel was an accomplished public speaker, which led her to become an author and TV show host. Her first book, Money Dynamics: How to Build Financial Independence, was published in 1975.

During her career, she wrote six books on finance and money and investing, two of which were on The New York Times bestseller list.

“Because of the books, PBS got interested in her, and contracted with her to do weekly television shows called ‘The Money Makers,’” said Harris, adding that she had these weekly shows on PBS for seven years.

In 1984, VanCaspel was a recipient of the prestigious Horatio Alger Award for Distinguished Americans, which recognizes those who rise to the top of their professions despite humble beginnings.

Harris himself also enjoyed a storied career. In the 1970s, Harris was a marketing executive with Hunt-Wesson Foods when he noticed a “most unusual” jar of popcorn in the gourmet foods department of a Chicago department store while there on a business trip. Labels on the jars “looked like they had been printed on a mimeograph machine,” and they featured the image of a man with a bow tie who happened to be a popcorn geneticist and grower from Valparaiso, Indiana.

I realized that the kids in college today are going to be the future of our country. And somebody needs to step forward to help those in need through scholarships so that they don't end up owing thousands of dollars in student loan debt after they graduate.”

Several jars of Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Popping Corn were purchased and sent to Hunt-Wesson's labs for testing. When the test came back with glowing results, the Hunt-Wesson marketing team met with Redenbacher, and Harris recalled that the conversation went this way:

“You're the expert in growing this wonderful strain of popcorn. We're the consumer product marketing experts. Why don't we get together, and we will make you the Colonel Sanders of the popcorn business,” Harris said.

"And that's exactly what we did. Within three years after introducing the product nationally, it became the #1 brand of popcorn on the market, and it still enjoys that status today."

Harris was also instrumental in the launch of what was at one time a most unusual product: disposable diapers. He introduced the first disposable diapers in the United States while working as a manager in new product development at Scott Paper Company, and today disposables account for over 95% of the diaper market.

In 1982, he became CEO of Southwest Management and Marketing Company in Houston, where he later met VanCaspel at an art installation. They had an “instant connection” and married in 1987 in Harris’ home town, Baton Rouge. Harris noted that they were married for 24 years before she passed away “and never had an argument.”

Together, they loved travel and philanthropy, which included establishing a scholarship program for Northwood University, a private business school in Michigan.

“We were both very pleased” with the scholarship program, he said. After she passed away, “I started thinking about, well, what am I going to do with our estate, and how am I going to put it to the best use. And education came back to mind, and I said, ‘Well, why don't I do that?’”

Harris believes in the importance of education and aiding those, like VanCaspel, who are eager to learn but can’t afford tuition.

“I realized that the kids in college today are going to be the future of our country. And somebody needs to step forward to help those in need through scholarships so that they don't end up owing thousands of dollars in student loan debt after they graduate.”

Harris will donate the majority of their estate, split evenly, to four colleges: Louisiana State University, University of Mississippi, Northwood University and CU Boulder.

“I decided to expand the program and to go to my universities, LSU and Ole Miss, and to come to CU where Venita graduated to honor her.”

Harris’s donation will impact thousands of economics students’ lives for many years. He figures that each of his four endowments should generate about $125,000 for scholarships annually.

“That’s half a million dollars I'll be giving away in scholarships every year through four universities,” Harris said, smiling. “We're talking about 20 or 30 recipients at each school every year forever.”

Lyttleton ‘Lyt’ Harris establishes planned gift of $2.5 million for scholarships benefitting students who follow in the steps of his wife, the late Venita VanCaspel.

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Honoring a visionary, lost too soon

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 19:13:17 +0000

Honoring a visionary, lost too soon Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/25/2019 - 13:13

Clay Bonnyman Evans

New endowed fund will support physics fellowships in honor of the late Deborah Jin

In 2001, Carl Wieman and Eric Cornell became the second and third — of five, to date — faculty members at the University of Colorado Boulder to receive the Nobel Prize, for their work in creating a Bose-Einstein condensate.

Deborah Jin in her laboratory and (above) during a CU Wizards presentation. Photos by Glenn Asakawa and Casey A. Cass.

Until she died of cancer at the tragically young age of 47 in 2016, many Nobel handicappers had put their money on Deborah Jin to become CU Boulder’s next laureate, thanks to her groundbreaking work in creating a fermionic condensate — a feat even more challenging than creating the Bose-Einstein condensate.

“A lot, lot harder,” Wieman answered a reporter from the New York Times when asked to compare Jin’s achievement to his Nobel-recognized work. “What did come out was more impressive than I thought would be possible.”

“There’s that classic saying that dancer Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards, and in heels,” says Patricia Rankin, professor of physics at CU Boulder. “That’s what Debbie did with the fermionic condensate.”

Jin’s “visionary and methodical approach made it possible to use these ultracold gases as model systems to tease out the quantum principles that lead to behaviors in real materials, such as superconductivity,”according to the journal Nature.

But Jin, professor of physics and fellow of JILA — a joint institute between the university and the National Institute for Science and Technology — didn’t just hide away in the lab. She had a rich family life, raising a daughter with her husband, JILA physicist John Bohn. She cared for and challenged her students, both in and out of the classroom, and was known as a tireless mentor and champion of women in science.

To honor her legacy, the CU Boulder College of Arts & Sciences has created the Deborah Jin Endowed Graduate Fellowships Fund, which will fully support the work and mentorship of two graduate scholars in physics each semester, starting in 2020.

The initial goal is to raise $1 million for this endowment. With gifts from the Heising Simons Foundation, the Chancellor’s Office and JILA, the physics department has raised $700,000. Wieman and his wife, Sarah Gilbert, would like to bring this to $800,000. They have pledged another $50,000 as a challenge to encourage others to contribute.

Debbie Jin embodied the highest ideals in physical science, and we hope to support and inspire others who might emulate her.”
—James W.C. White, interim dean

To date, faculty and other supporters have donated more than $26,000 toward Wieman’s and Gilbert’s $50,000 matching gift, according to CU Boulder’s Office of Advancement.

“This endowment honors a consummate, exemplary scientist whom we lost too soon,” says James W.C. White, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Debbie Jin embodied the highest ideals in physical science, and we hope to support and inspire others who might emulate her.”

In addition, the college will provide annual support as needed to ensure that the fellowships will fully cover awardees’ tuition costs for an entire semester.

Awardees will be chosen based on their graduate-school application materials, except for scores on the GRE (Graduate Record Examination), which are “known to disadvantage applicants from under-represented groups,” according to White.

How to help

To contribute to the Deborah Jin Fellowships, contact Jane Marsh in the CU Boulder Office of Advancement at jane.marsh@colorado.edu or 303-541-1444. You can also contribute online.

Preference will be given to applicants “who represent the spirit of Deborah Jin and have demonstrated a commitment to … serving their community and/or family and … breaking barriers for underserved or underrepresented populations in the larger Physics community.”

“We want to honor Debbie Jin’s legacy as one of the pioneering women physicists of her time by bringing people into physics with the promise to follow in her footsteps,” Rankin says. “We have a really good physics department, and by paying attention to the need to broaden participation and perspectives, we will help direct the future of the field.”

US News & World Report ranks CU Boulder’s Physics Department as 14^thbest in the world, including second-best in atomic/molecular/optical physics and sixth in quantum physics. The international Shanghai Ranking Consultancy ranks the department as the world’s 12^thbest.

New endowed fund will support physics fellowships in honor of the late Deborah Jin.

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Donors, scholarship recipients say awards benefit both parties

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Feb 2019 18:00:19 +0000

Donors, scholarship recipients say awards benefit both parties Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/27/2019 - 11:00

Jeff Thomas

‘Because of you, I’ve gotten the opportunity to really experiment and create freely,’ student tells benefactors

There are a lot of ways to give back to the University of Colorado Boulder; but be warned, most of them will leave you wanting to give even more.

Sue and Barry Baer made that argument to scores of scholarship donors and recipients at the cozy cabin-themed celebration of scholarship donors and recipients in the College of Arts and Sciences on Feb. 10.

Barry and Sue Baer

“As newlyweds, we had not a spare penny to spend,” said Sue Baer, who with her husband, Barry, donates to multiple scholarship funds. “Still we treasured the value of giving back and gave the one thing we had, time. So, I did volunteer work while he trained with the Army.”

“If giving is indeed addictive, I hope you will all be hooked.”

Celebrating this year’s event at the Riverside event venue near Arapahoe Road on Broadway, Interim Dean Jim White noted that giving to the college really goes back to the very beginning.

“CU was literally built upon private donations,” said White, noting the university then consisted almost entirely of disciplines now in the College of Arts and Sciences. “The land was donated by three families: the Arnetts, the Andrews and the Smiths. The University of Colorado Boulder was first funded by donations from 104 individuals.”

With milk costing five cents a quart “imagine donating between $50 and $1,000 during that time period,” White said. “When these families were donating money, there wasn’t even an official school to donate the money to.”

But while those donors were giving sight-unseen to the concept of an educated Colorado citizenry, donors today often know the recipients of their generosity. That’s the case with donor Noel Hefty and the recipient of the Noel and Terrence Hefty Scholarship Fund, senior Hanna Ghadessi, a dance major who is minoring in anthropology and business.

“She comes to every one of my performances, and we have lunch at least several times every semester,” said Ghadessi, who is in the fourth year of receiving the $5,000 annual scholarship.

Donor Noel Hefty and student Hanna Ghadessi, above and at the top of the page, share a moment during a recent scholarship-donor celebration. CU Boulder Photos by Casey Cass.

The two now share a rich background in dance that goes well past the occasional meetup. Noel Hefty, who has been named a “Living Legend of Dance,” by the University of Denver University Libraries, was on the board of the Colorado Dance Festival when it gave a venue to a then unknown hip-hop dance artist, Lorenzo "Rennie" Harris back in the ’90s. Now Ghadessi is set to work in a troop headed by Harris, an artist in residence at CU Boulder, who is affiliated with the esteemed Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

“I love Hip-Hop,” said Hefty, who also funds a scholarship in her alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, and founded the Seamboat Dance Theater in 1972.

Javier, Padilla, a junior studying studio art, created a video, shared during the scholarship celebration and displayed below, shows him talking about the effect of donors’ support. The donations that allow him to offset the cost of his education are important, but smaller donations that offset the cost of his materials are important as well, said Padilla.

“Scholarships allow a lot more freedom in my practice,” especially when identifying new techniques that might allow him to be productive enough to make a living at his art, Padilla said. “I can put work out there at the volume that I need.”

“Because of you, I’ve gotten the opportunity to really experiment and create freely, and had the opportunity to fail, which is really important in my art practice.”

How to help

For more information about giving and scholarships, see the college's giving page or contact David Carpenter, assistant dean for advancement.

For all donors, these events allow them to be connected not only with the university, but the community of Boulder, said Russell Teets (BS, Engr, 1977), who graduated from Boulder High School in the ’70s, along with his wife, Jany. Their family has funded an undergraduate chemistry scholarship, the David W. Teets Memorial Scholarship, as well as the Otis and Elsie Purchase Teets Family Endowment, which has awards for both instate undergraduates and all graduate students.

“We’re the only ones who are still around, so we get to come,” joked Russell Teets.

But no matter how much alumni have to give, none of it is taken lightly.

“My first gift to CU was in June 1978 for $35,” said Barry Baer (BS, Acct, 1965, MBA, 1972). He added:

“Our bottom line to you today is this: We can all do something to improve the lives of others, no matter what our current stage of life. Don’t wait; the time to give back is now.”

[video:https://youtu.be/2-WGTqi3lgU]

‘Because of you, I’ve gotten the opportunity to really experiment and create freely,’ student tells benefactors.

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Major gift buttresses geology department’s stratospheric stature

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Dec 2018 18:16:05 +0000

Major gift buttresses geology department’s stratospheric stature Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 12/10/2018 - 11:16

Paul Rady and Bruce Benson’s common ties, friendship yields new endowed chair in geology at CU Boulder

Paul Rady’s loose connection with the University of Colorado Boulder became considerably tighter when CU President Bruce Benson (Geology ’64) approached his friend about supporting an endowed faculty position in geology. The result is a $5 million Rady Endowed Chair that will substantially boost the considerable momentum the Geological Sciences Department is experiencing.

Paul Rady. At the top of the page are (left to right) President Bruce Benson, Paul Rady, Chancellor Philip Distefano and petroleum geology chair Paul Weimer.

The initial connection started when Benson was pursuing a master’s degree in geology at CU in the early 1960s, and two of his classmates from the doctoral program, Tom Prather and Bruce Bartleson, went on to become faculty members at Western State College (now Western State Colorado University). One of their students was Paul Rady, who earned his bachelor’s degree in geology in 1979. He went on to found Colorado-based Antero Resources, among other oil and gas exploration-based companies.

Rady and Benson are friends, and the CU president approached him about a $5 million endowment for the Geological Sciences Department, as well as a substantial partnership between CU and Western State on engineering. Rady later gave Western State $80 million, which will create the Paul M. Rady School of Computer Science and Engineering at his alma mater.

The gift will help Western State and CU Boulder launch a new program that will offer CU Boulder bachelor of science degrees in computer science and mechanical engineering on the Gunnison campus. Rady also provided $5 million to support projects in the College of Engineering & Applied Science at CU Boulder.

“Paul recognizes the critical importance of education, which is reflected not only in his endowed chair in geology, but also in the engineering partnership with Western,” Benson said. “He and I share a commitment to fostering the next generation of geologists, and there’s no better way to do that than to invest in top faculty talent.”

The challenge was they also shared an affinity for the same faculty member, former department chair Paul Weimer, who occupied the petroleum geology chair that Benson endowed in 1999. CU’s president said he was happy to have Weimer shift to the Rady Chair when the department identifies another faculty member for the Benson Chair.

“It will make the department that much stronger,” said Benson.

That’s saying something, since geosciences at CU Boulder this year achieved the No. 1 ranking in the world from US News and World Report.

He and I share a commitment to fostering the next generation of geologists, and there’s no better way to do that than to invest in top faculty talent.”
—Bruce Benson

“This is the second endowed chair for the department, and that’s important for recruiting new talent,” Weimer said. “Getting to number one is great, and we want to stay at that level.”

Rady was not unknown to Weimer, though the latter geologist credited Benson for most of the work on the new geology chair. Weimer gave Rady a tour of the British Petroleum Visualization Center in 2002, and since then Rady has also funded Weimer’s Interactive Geology Project, which provides educational animations of geology, for more than $1 million.

Rady had most of his success in natural gas, but focused on the wet gases, which are feed stock for plastics and other petroleum-based products. Weimer said that having an association with Rady has actually changed his own research focus to include the geologic structures that Rady has successfully explored.

“I have nothing but the highest respect for his geologic efforts,” Weimer said. “My own interest is in applied geology, applied to petroleum exploration, although in the past I have focused primarily on different geologic structures. I have switched my research so I do more similar things.”

Weimer wanted to find a unique way to express the department’s thanks for Rady’s generosity. In early November, the geology department hosted a celebration for Paul and Katy Rady to thank the couple for their gift. 91��Ƭ�� 50 people, including Bruce and Marcy Benson, attended, as well as a number of Weimer’s former students working in oil and gas exploration across six continents.

Weimer asked five of them to speak, representing multiple generations of CU grads, so Rady could get a sense of his gift’s impact. He heard from Hal Miller (PhD, 1977), Thomas Villamil (PhD 1994), Berry McBride (PhD 1997) Marco Arreguin (2003 master’s) and John Roesink (20O5 master’s). The talks were followed by a touching gift presentation.

“All of us rockhounds love old maps—the older the better,” Weimer said. “I realized the one thing that would turn him on was a really old map, and remembered where there was a folio of the first geologic maps in Colorado.

The map that Weimer had framed for Rady was of the Gunnison Valley, where Rady learned his rock science years ago.

“The great thing was it also included Mount Antero, the namesake of Rady’s company,” Weimer said. “I told him he was going to have to find a place in his office, but Katy said, ‘No, you can hang it in the living room.’”

With reporting by Jeff Tomas and Ken McConnelogue.

Paul Rady’s loose connection with CU Boulder became considerably tighter when CU President Bruce Benson approached his friend about supporting an endowed faculty position in geology.

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Alum will support students of the (far) distant future

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 17:54:30 +0000

Alum will support students of the (far) distant future Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/05/2018 - 11:54

Jeff Thomas

Legacy endowments for both music and international-affairs students reflect Courtney Rowe’s values and her work

After spending considerable effort trying to stay in Boulder for the long term, Courtney Rowe has also found a way to leave a little bit of herself behind when she’s gone—long gone.

“Well, hopefully I’m not going anywhere soon,” said Rowe, 36, who was recently promoted to assistant dean for the University of Colorado Boulder’s College of Music advancement team. “I spent my entire life being here, seeking a way to get here or trying to get back here.”

But when she’s no longer here—literally, figuratively and existentially—there will still be some of Rowe left behind, as she has set up legacy endowments benefitting both the College of Music and the International Affairs Program Global Grants program. Rowe studied and graduated with a degree in international affairs, and her family already has an endowment at the College of Music. She said the reason she pursued a legacy endowment was simple.

“Being in my line of work, in advancement, I know the importance of sharing your gift expectations,” said Rowe, who used her university life-insurance policy to set up the two $25,000, grants.

Courtney Rowe and her mother, Peg Rowe.

“It’s super easy if you are an employee here, which is awesome. You can do it yourself or with an advancement professional,” she said. “I can tell potential donors, ‘See, if I can do it, you can do it. It’s easy.’”

Rowe, who originally hailed from the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Illinois, first came to CU Boulder at the age of 15, visiting a friend who lived in Sewall Hall. Returning home and meeting with her mother at the airport, Rowe proclaimed that Boulder was the one and only place for her university studies. Her mother, Peg Rowe, who completed some of her graduate studies at Colorado State University, was sympathetic.

Courtney Rowe, however, did defer her enrollment here to study at Richmond, the American International University in London. Perceiving that she would probably be more focused on her course work in Boulder, she returned to her original plan to study international affairs at CU Boulder, where she attended from 2002 to 2006.

She took advantage of the global affairs program to work in Ghana, where she developed a profound respect for what a “boots-on-the-ground” experience can mean for students of international affairs. Her legacy gift will enable such experiences for students who come after her.

“It was eye-opening in a brutally real way for me—I was going to make a huge impact as young idealist going there,” she said. “But there is so much that is so much bigger than you are. You see the colossal scale of some of these crises and how big the solutions have to be, and what isn’t working.”

“It’s a real-world experience you really need to see. You see how to be part of the solution.”

After her international experience, Rowe returned to the Chicago area, where she held similar fundraising posts, but her eye was still on Boulder. In 2014, she was part of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago’s (MCA) development team that raised support for “David Bowie Is,” the international exhibition celebrating five decades of music, art, and fashion from the pop icon’s personal archives.

Her rise in the Office of Advancement has been a bit meteoric, working the Music+campaign, the $50 million fundraising effort for the College of Music’s 100th annual celebration in 2020. She was originally hired as an assistant director of development in 2015, promoted to director, and then served as the interim assistant dean before taking the office officially in June of this year.

“This is my dream job,” said Rowe, “I have no intention of going anywhere (literally or figuratively) soon.”

Taking control of a $50 million fundraising effort is a fairly tall order, but Rowe already has a great deal of experience working with donors for the College of Music and Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Her mother, Peg, also set up a legacy gift for her own mother, Margaret Steed, a gifted and avid violinist who was never offered the opportunity to further her music education.

“My grandmother was the musician in the family, but she wasn’t able to pursue it as a career while raising a family,” said Rowe, noting her own legacy gift will also honor her grandmother. “She played in a string quartet until she was too sick to continue. The quartet played at her funeral with an empty chair and her violin sitting on it.”

After spending considerable effort trying to stay in Boulder for the long term, Courtney Rowe has also found a way to leave a little bit of herself behind when she’s gone—long gone.

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