Fall 2008 | Volume 32, No. 1

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Extraordinary Opportunities Campaign

A pair of large gifts from some of Cornell’s most beloved alumni highlighted the end of the school year for Extraordinary Opportunities: The Campaign for Cornell.

In April, Cornell announced a $2 million planned gift from Jean Russell ’65 that will create an endowed faculty chair in molecular biology and support other campus priorities.

“I view this as an opportunity to give back to Cornell a portion of what they gave me in education, experience, and growth,” said Russell. Russell earned her Ph.D. in biology from Rice University in 1971. From then until 1993, she worked at Washington University in St. Louis, teaching and researching. She contributed significant work to bone and calcium research and was able to extend many of the medical principles concerning growth and repair in the skeleton.

Half of the $2 million deferred gift will endow the Jean E. Russell Chair in Molecular Biology as part of Cornell College’s Dimensions: The Center for the Science and Culture of Healthcare programs. The other $1 million is unrestricted.

Then in March, Cornell announced a $500,000 gift from Dick Brubaker ’55 and Beth Johnson Brubaker ’61. The largest portion of the gift will increase the endowment and annual funds. The remainder of the gift will supplement the Class of 1955 Travel Fund for off-campus study, the Beta Omicron Distinguished Alumni Visitors Fund, and renovations and expansions to Cornell’s wrestling and weight rooms.

Dick Brubaker, the founder of Richwrap Inc., is in his third year as chair of the Cornell College Board of Trustees, and his 11th overall.

“This campaign is one of the most important events in the history of the college,” said Brubaker. “It is deserving of my support and my wife’s.”