KEAN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ 07083 866-737-GIFT [email protected] 2010 - 2011 UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION BIENNIAL REPORT Kean University Foundation — 2010–2011 Table of Contents Kean University Foundation Board of Directors 3 Message from Kean University President Dawood Y. Farahi, Ph.D. 4 Message from KUF Board Chair Maria E. Bordas ‘74 ‘80 5 Donor Profile – Christine Wilson H‘11 6 Donor Profile – Jim Hynes ‘63 H‘09 and Carole Hynes 8 Financials – Gifts and Pledges 10 Financials – Scholarship Dollars Raised/Fund Balance 11 Financials – Statements of Financial Position 12 Financials – Statement of Activities 13 Donor Profile – Abner Benisch ‘40: In Memoriam 14 STEM Building and Scholar Profiles 16 Donor Profile – Kevin ‘73 and Elizabeth (Beth) Alton ‘70 18 Message from Alumni Association President Edward A. Esposito ’69 ‘72 20 Gala and Golf Outing Recaps 22-23 Donor Lists 24 Ursino Restaurant 46 2 Kean University Foundation — 2010–2011 Foundation Board of Directors Kristie Reilly ’91, President Maria E. Bordas ’74 ’80, Chair Steve Fastook H’06, Vice Chair Robert H. Busch H’03, Secretary Kenneth N. Goldmann, Treasurer Christian J. Baker Patricia M. Barksdale ’95 W. John Bauer Scott M. Bresky ’77 William J. Cariste Eugene C. Enlow, ex officio Edward A. Esposito ’69 ’72, ex officio James K. Estabrook Anthony Giordano III ’87 Dorothy G. Hennings H’10 George Hennings H’10 James G. Hynes ’63 H’09 John Kean Jr. Susan L. Kogan Ada Morell ’97, ex officio Marjorie A. Perry ’74 Patricia A. Powell Albert L. Record ’66 Barbara Sobel ’71, ex officio Robert F. Sommers ’76 Emeritus Gail E. Fraser ’85 Li-Woan Yang ’83 H’01 Abraham Zuckerman H’95 Lifetime Emeritus Members Daniel J. Charleston ’83 Nancy Muzyka Schleicher ’72 3 Kean University Foundation — 2010–2011 A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF KEAN UNIVERSITY A MESSAGE FROM THE KEAN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION BOARD CHAIR Dawood Y. Farahi, Ph.D. Maria E. Bordas ’74 ’80 Every fall our great pride is to welcome a new generation of students to our campus and accept the responsibility for cultivating their intellectual, cultural, and personal growth. Each year, more students are choosing Kean as the place to pursue their life goals. Even in the current economy, our students recognize that the path leading to and through higher education is still the best and most direct road to achieving an outstanding future. Over the years between fall 2007 and fall 2011, Kean University’s total enrollment, including both undergraduate and graduate, grew steadily each year and increased by nearly 21 percent for the whole five-year period. That is why, even in challenging economic times, your support for Kean University is more important than ever. We need to sustain the enthusiasm and ambition of our students with a bold institutional agenda prioritizing educational opportunities and capital projects. We need to keep expanding our academic programs, hiring more exceptional faculty, renovating and adding to our facilities. Our students are facing a global job market that presents them with great possibilities as well as significant challenges. It is our job to make sure that they are ready to take on both. Your philanthropy makes so many things possible, and we could not be the growing, dynamic institution we are today if not for your awareness of the critical role you play in our campus community. On behalf of the students of Kean University, please accept my most heartfelt thanks for your interest, support, and generosity. Dawood Y. Farahi, Ph.D. President, Kean University 4 Kean University Foundation — 2010–2011 A MESSAGE FROM THE KEAN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION BOARD CHAIR Maria E. Bordas ’74 ’80 As members of the Kean University Foundation Board of Directors, we represent a diverse group of volunteers from different backgrounds and professional affiliations. The one thing that unites us is our common passion for Kean University and the work we do to support its mission: educating the leaders of tomorrow. We all share with the leadership of this University a vision to give students a world-class education that almost literally places the world at their feet. On behalf of the Board of Directors, I am pleased to present this report summarizing the results of our institutional advancement efforts during 2010 and 2011. Many exciting things have happened in the past two years. We have launched a number of new initiatives, such as the Kean University Arts Council, developed by the Foundation to build awareness and raise funds for the arts and art education at Kean. We’re starting to develop geographically-based alumni chapters, such as the Southern Florida Chapter, in an area where there are many Kean alumni. Also, we held our first major in-house phonathon, which raised almost $20,000 in funds to support the athletics program. There will be much more to come, and we hope you will continue play a significant role in making possible the plans and dreams of our hard-working, deserving students. On behalf of the Kean University Foundation, thank you very much for your support. Maria E. Bordas ’74 ’80 Chair, Kean University Foundation Board 5 Kean University Foundation — 2010–2011 MEDICAL RESEARCher — SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDER Christine Wilson H’11 Christine Malanga Wilson established not one but two scholarship funds at Kean University: the Mabel G. Holmes Endowment Scholarship, named for a beloved teacher, and the Divina Malanga Memorial Scholarship Fund, named for Wilson’s mother. Both are earmarked for academically talented female students who are graduates of public high school in Elizabeth, N.J. Together, Holmes and Malanga helped Wilson overcome the challenges of gender and economic status. Although she never realized her dream of becoming a doctor, Wilson’s accomplishments as a medical researcher may have a much more indelible impact on humanity, with the possibility of new treatments for millions of sick and suffering people around the world. To meet Wilson is to come into contact with a living legend and an authentic representative of the “Greatest Generation.” At the age of 98, she is the last surviving member of a World War II-era medical research team that tried to find new treatments for malaria, which was felling thousands of Allied soldiers in the South Pacific. With Axis powers cutting off access to Cinchona trees in Indonesia — at the time, the only source of quinine—government agencies and drug companies began scrambling to find new plant extracts that would yield a new malaria drug. Over a period of five years, Wilson and her team from Merck & Co. painstakingly tested more than 600 plants collected from around the globe. Dozens of promising leads were discovered — and then the war ended and the project was discontinued. But recently, with malaria-causing parasites becoming resistant to quinine and other medicinals, Wilson’s research has come out of the archives and may yet play a vital, life-saving role in the ongoing battle against this insidious disease. The oldest of five children from a working-class neighborhood in Elizabeth, Christine Malanga Wilson grew up in the Depression when food was scarce—and opportunities for advancement even scarcer. “No one can describe or appreciate how poor we were in the 1930s,” she recalls. But there was one thing Wilson was not poor in: ambition. More than anything else, she wanted to be a doctor. Fortunately, she also had an abundance of strong support from two loving women: Divina Malanga, her mother—her “superhero,” according to Wilson—and Kean graduate Mabel Holmes, her second grade teacher and mentor. Her mother, Wilson says, “was born in the wrong century, denied her potential because she was female and inadequately schooled.” Divina Malanga had to quit grammar school to take care of her siblings, but she understood the value of education and encouraged her children to educate themselves and become self-supporting members of society. Teacher Mabel Holmes (Newark Normal School, Class of 1921) would go on to become the first African American principal in the Elizabeth school district and a commissioner on the Elizabeth Board of Education. She encouraged Wilson, a talented student, to dream big, and set a positive example through her own hard work 6 Kean University Foundation — 2010–2011 and perseverance. Wilson and Holmes enjoyed an enduring relationship that included invitations to tea and attendance at Wilson’s dance recitals. Because of her family’s economic situation, Wilson decided on a career in medical technology instead of becoming a doctor. She attended Newark Beth Israel’s Lyons Avenue School for Medical Technology, and after graduation worked in hospital labs for eight years. Eventually she landed a position at Merck & Co., where she stayed for many years — and embarked on the opportunity of a lifetime as one of the few women in her field when she became the supervisor of the malaria drug study team in 1943. Her pioneering work on the potential benefits of about 600 botanical specimens was published in the journal Lloydia—a predecessor to the Journal of Natural Products — in 1947. With the war over and quinine once again available, the research was shelved for more than 65 years. Recently, however, it was rediscovered as a potential resource for people who might be resistant to anti-malarial drugs. Scientists are once again searching for new formulas and believe some of the plants in the original Merck study may be quite promising. As a result, Wilson—the last living member of the research team—has enjoyed a burst of publicity and attention from biologists, biochemists, and science-focused journalists. Wilson herself is still blooming. She remains an astonishingly keen, involved spectator of the scientific world.