O9 DONOR REPORT PRESIDENT GEORGE CAMPBELL JR. ABOVE WITH: (l to r) State Assembly Member Deborah Glick, Vice President Robert Hawks, architect Thom Mayne, student Wallace Torres (Eng’11), President of New York City’s Economic Development Corporation Seth Pinsky, Vice President Ronni Denes, Alumni Association President MaryAnn Nichols (A’68), Professor Richard Stock, associate architects Peter Samton and Jordan Gruzen, construction manager Frank Sciame and Chair of the Board of Trustees, Ronald W. Drucker (CE’62) cutting the ribbon at 41 Cooper Square. PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART 2009 DONOR REPORT 1 Each year in The Cooper Union Donor Report, enthusiastic audience. Related to the Great we say thank you for the generosity and Evenings, in June we hosted Mayor Michael devotion to the college shown through Bloomberg and the leadership of the NAACP contributions by individuals, alumni, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the foundations and government. This year, on organization’s first meeting, which took place behalf of the Trustees, officers, staff, faculty in the Great Hall. and students, I would like to express an As we reflect on the past century and a especially profound and heartfelt gratitude half, we remain deeply focused on maintaining to all who supported our academic programs the absolute highest standards of academic and renewal of our facilities in the face of rigor that make our tuition-free education so extreme economic apprehension. highly coveted, exemplified by the soaring In spite of the financial uncertainties, in applications for admission. Our selectivity 2009, we began the celebration of the 150th is among the best in the nation, with an anniversary of the founding of The Cooper acceptance rate of only seven percent. In Union by Peter Cooper. It was Peter Cooper’s 2009 two of our graduates won Fulbright pioneering spirit of philanthropy that gave Scholarships, bringing the total to 31 since rise to a vision of academic excellence and 2001, maintaining The Cooper Union’s place access to higher education that we uphold as one of the nation’s top producers of today, and it is a similar spirit that we see in Fulbright Scholars. Cooper Union faculty all of you, our contributors and friends. members have also been recognized with Over the summer we moved into 41 Cooper regional and national awards. Professor Walid Square, our new academic building designed Raad received the prestigious Guggenheim by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Fellowship in 2009, the sixth School of Art Mayne. This green academic laboratory faculty member to be so honored since 2004. facility, built to LEED Platinum standards, Dean Anthony Vidler of the Irwin S. Chanin now is inhabited by students, faculty and staff School of Architecture was awarded AIA New of all four academic divisions of the college, York State Educator of the Year honors. the Albert Nerken School of Engineering, the Cooper Union tuition last year was valued Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the at $35,000 per student, and on the occasion School of Art and the Irwin S. Chanin School of our 150th anniversary, the Board of Trustees of Architecture. The building opened in reaffirmed our ongoing commitment to September to broad critical acclaim worldwide. providing every admitted student with a full- The New York Times’ senior architecture critic tuition scholarship. The economic downturn Nicolai Ouroussoff called it “the kind of notwithstanding, our capital campaign reached serious work that we don’t see enough of in $181 million at the end of academic year 2009, New York: a bold architectural statement of supporting our academic programs, the genuine civic value.”In The Wall Street Journal, endowment and capital projects—the new critic Ada Louise Huxtable lauded the design building at 41 Cooper Square and the “not only for the latest in technology and renovation of the Foundation Building. With Leo Sorel sustainability, but also as an appropriate your ongoing and generous support, we fully learning environment for those engaged in expect to achieve our goal of $250 million the creative disciplines.” in 2012, and we will continue meeting our This year, Great Evenings in the Great Hall commitment to the next generation of presented recreations of the historic speeches architects, artists and engineers who will that took place in the Great Hall over the shape our world. years. An eight-part series related to important intellectual developments and social and GEORGE CAMPBELL JR. political reform movements of the 19th and PRESIDENT 20th centuries that were introduced or sustained in our Great Hall forums, the THE COOPER UNION programs featured renowned actors and FOR THE ADVANCEMENT social activists who reenacted history made OF SCIENCE AND ART at The Cooper Union. Addressing topics from abolition, civil rights and women’s suffrage to issues in science and technology and revolutionary work in literature and art, the event series has drawn a diverse and Stanley Lapidus with his spouse Ruth, daughter-in-law Michelle, sons David and Joel, and daughter-in-law Tiffany The Cooper Union established its Lifetime Giving Societies to recognize our most generous benefactors and to honor the philanthropic spirit that perpetuates the college. At this exceptional moment in the institution’s history, as we celebrate The Cooper Union’s 150th year in existence, the generosity of these societies’ members plays an absolutely essential role in sustaining our founder Peter Cooper’s noble mission—to provide an education that is “as free as air and water” to talented and deserving students, regardless LIFETIME of means, for generations to come. GIVING THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART 2009 DONOR REPORT 3 Peter Cooper Sarah Bedell Cooper Abram S. Hewitt Heritage Society Society Society Individuals and families who, over Sarah Bedell Cooper (1793-1869), Abram S. Hewitt (1822-1903) was a the course of their lives, have donated Peter Cooper’s wife, was instrumental in teacher, lawyer, iron manufacturer, $1 million or more to The Cooper Union establishing a “Golden Wedding Fund” U.S. Congressman and Mayor of New are inducted into the Peter Cooper on the occasion of their 50th wedding York City. He was also Peter Cooper’s Heritage Society, which celebrates the anniversary, to support charities. The son-in-law and The Cooper Union’s most philanthropic spirit that perpetuates Sarah Bedell Cooper Society celebrates important founding trustee. The Abram this institution. her commitment to The Cooper Union S. Hewitt Society honors individuals and New members for FY 2009 to the as well as her strong philanthropic spirit families who, over the course of their Society appear in italics below. and initiative. The Society honors the lives, have donated $250,000-$499,999 individuals and families who, over the to The Cooper Union. Margaret Bayuk and Robert Bayuk ’43 course of their lives, have donated New members for FY 2009 to the Joan Bernhard and Robert Bernhard $500,000-$999,999 to The Cooper Union. Society appear in italics below. and the Robert Lehman Foundation Jeannette Brooks and Louis Brooks ’41* Judith Borkowsky and Howard Betts’49 Irwin S. Chanin ’15* Michael Borkowksy ’61 Clo Cohen and Charles S.Cohen George Clark ’41* Lois M. Collier James E. Craig ’63 Jane Deed Susan Silver deMenil and C. Raymond Dahl ’43 Lisa Ware and Ronald W. Drucker ’62 Francois deMenil ’87 Daniel Eisen* Angelica Garcia-Flagg and Diane Driscoll and Elinor Goldman and Howard Flagg ’75* Thomas R. Driscoll ’77 Leonard Goldman ’46 F. Phillip Geraci Edward Durbin ’48 Esther Gould* and Jack Gould ’27* Paula Gural and Jeffrey Gural Susan Eisenberg ’62 and Helmuth Knapp ’50* Benjamin Eisenberg ’61 Susan Itri and Benedict Itri ’75 Ann Levine and Bernard Levine ’44* Stanley Ensminger ’46 Marylin Diamond and Janet Neschis Anne McGraw and and The Jacques and Mark L. Epstein ’76 Harold McGraw Jr. Natasha Gelman Trust Cecily Fox and George Fox ’40* Constance J. Milstein Maurice Kanbar Bette-Ann Gwathmey and Robert Rogge ’42 Ada Katz and Alex Katz ’49 Charles Gwathmey* Janet Seifried and Dean Seifried ’36 William King ’48 Roslyn Jaffe and Elliot Jaffe Alla Weisberg and Evelyn Kossak and the Ellen Lincer and Richard Lincer Philip Zev Weisberg’89 John & Evelyn Kossak Foundation Susan Michaelson and Claire Wesselmann ’59 and Ruth Lapidus and Stanley Lapidus ’70 John Michaelson Tom Wesselmann ’59* Richard Menschel and Robert Menschel Alphonse R. Normandia ’48 and Jason H. Wright and the Charina Endowment Fund the Normandia Family Albert Nerken ’33* Lynne Pasternack and Bruce Pasternack ’68 Joanna Rose and Daniel Rose Harry Ploss ’68 Sandra Priest Rose and the Trustee Emeritus Clarence F. Michalis and Cora Michalis Frederick P. Rose Foundation Renee Rabinowitz and Rubin Rabinowitz ’42 Morris Shane ’47 Susan Rudin and Jack Rudin Marilyn Simons and Jim Simons Patricia Sandholm and Frank Stanton* in honor of William H. Sandholm Jr.’63 Louis Dorfsman ’39* and Ann Hysa Dorfsman ’39 Ardath Schwartz and Richard Schwartz ’57 Peter Torraco ’28* Cynthia C. Weiler and Diane Trust and Martin Trust ’56 and E. Blake Moore, Jr. The Trust Family Foundation Irma Giustino Weiss ’45 Barbara White ’60* This list recognizes contributions received from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 | *Deceased 4 THE COOPER UNION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE AND ART 2009 DONOR REPORT Sarah Amelia Hewitt Society Doris Luber and Edgar H. Luber ’53 Harriet Mack and John Mack Sarah Amelia Hewitt (1830-1912) Cora B. Michalis and Clarence F. Michalis was the daughter of Peter Cooper. She married Abram S. Hewitt in 1855, Fernanda D. Milling ’29* and together they were influential in Janice Miner and Frank W. Miner ’47 the world of public service.