momentum A Newsletter for Alumni, Families and Friends of the College of Charleston
INSIDE Cover Story
onor d Profile: Tony Meyer ’49
tudent Profile: S Marita Hansen and Lauren Strubeck ollege News C and Updates Event Calendar Happenings evelopment D Spotlight: Office of Gift Planning
Spring 2010
welcome
To our Alumni, Parents and Many Friends:
W
elcome to the spring installment of Momentum. In this issue, we explore the idea of legacy. As you will see in our cover story about Tony Meyer ’49, this campus legend believes that a person’s legacy should reflect the life one lives, the people one touches and the endeavors that one pursues. For Tony, that legacy is education, and he’s made accessibility for current and future students a priority in his own giving and estate planning. In another story, we meet two gifted students: freshmen Lauren Strubeck and Marita Hansen, who are the recipients of scholarships tied to this theme of legacy. Lauren earned the Tony Meyer Scholarship, and Marita is a William Nelson Grooms Memorial Scholar. Of special note, Marita’s scholarship is guided by Grooms’ descendents Sandy Hutson Collins ’65 and Timothy Collins ’94, proud alumni who believe in and are living proof of the power of a College of Charleston education. We hope you will enjoy the stories and updates in this issue of Momentum, and we urge you to share it throughout the community in which you live and serve. Thank you for all that you do. And thanks as well for what you will continue to do in support of the College of Charleston. Go Cougars!
George P. Watt Jr. (l to r): Tap Johnson, Jean Johnson and George Watt
Executive Vice President, Institutional Advancement Executive Director, College of Charleston Foundation
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Student Profile
Marita Hansen ’13
Going Places
Photos by Terry Kuzniar
I
t took just one look for Marita Hansen to know the College would be her next home. Scouting South Carolina colleges on a vacation from her home in Chicago, Hansen walked into the Beatty Center for the School of Business and was blown away. She had been considering schools with renowned business programs closer to home, including Loyola University Chicago, Marquette, University of Illinois and Miami University, but the city of Charleston and the College’s commitment to business education persuaded her to come south. “I could tell it was really professional,” says Hansen, a freshman and international business major. It also helped that Hansen received the William Nelson Grooms Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded to exceptional business school majors. The scholarship, established in 1988 by Emily Bennett, Henry Smythe and Caroline B. Gill in Grooms’ honor, provided more than financial help, Hansen says. It also gave her family peace of mind. “My parents knew that I would be supported,” she says. Hansen wasted no time in starting her business education, enrolling in The Art of Business – one of the College’s First-Year Experience courses designed to immerse freshmen in campus and academic life. Three days a week, MOMENTUM spring 2010 3
she learned how performing arts groups handle the bottom line from theatre professor Allen Lyndrup and global commerce professor David Desplaces. As part of a group project, Hansen and her classmates advised Charleston’s Pure Theatre on how to effectively market to college students. This spring semester, Hansen is taking advanced Spanish classes in preparation for a semester abroad her junior year. She had planned on studying in Spain, but Desplaces might have persuaded her to reconsider after he advertised his Technology for Africa course, in which students bring computers and technology to Cameroon to encourage entrepreneurship. Before it comes time to decide, though, she is keeping busy with leadership positions within her sorority and on the executive board of the College’s fundraising chapter of the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. Also involved with Relay for Life is Lauren Strubeck, a freshman from Dallas. She, too, has made quick connections 4 MOMENTUM spring 2010
Lauren strubeck ’13
to professors at the College and their passions, though her attraction to the teaching style of political science professor David Mann might be inherited. The Hawaiian shirt–wearing, cigar-chomping campus icon taught Strubeck’s father – Lou ’80 – his first year of teaching, and now Mann is wrapping up his academic career by teaching the younger Strubeck. Interestingly, Lauren Strubeck is attending the College with the help of the Tony Meyer Scholarship, which is extended to children of alumni.
Meyer taught Lauren’s father too, in a physical education class. The College of Charleston roots obviously run deep in the Strubeck family, and Lauren’s parents met as students before getting married. Each time Lauren walks through the Cistern Yard, she sees a bench that once held her father and a number of his best friends. A photograph of that moment sits framed on a table in the Strubeck home. As Strubeck adjusts to Charleston, her classes and sorority life, her father is already lobbying for her to continue following in his footsteps. “My dad’s a lawyer,” she explains, “so he’s in the background going, ‘Law school, Lauren, you can do it!’” Before that happens, however, she has a list of things to accomplish at the College. For example, she wants to be sure to graduate in four years, and she has to decide on a major. It sounds like a good idea, too, to sign up for one of the College’s sailing classes held in Charleston Harbor. “I’ve got to try it,” says Strubeck. “I’ve got to get out there.” M
donor profile
An Institution Within an Institution
Cover photo and inset photos by Diana Deaver
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istory and tradition matter to him. It’s obvious as you look around his office in the Blacklock House on Bull Street. In one manner, the office is a time capsule. Here’s a bell shard resting on his coffee table – a memento from one of the treasured basketball victories over in-town rival, The Citadel, in the 1920s. Over there’s a sepia-toned photo of one of the last College football teams, pinned proudly above his electric typewriter. Tucked in the corner is a box of College memorabilia – T-shirts from the 1970s and early 1980s, sports pennants and campus fliers. And decorating his overstuffed bookshelves are dozens of framed photos and newspaper clippings commemorating campus events and historical moments that stretch more than half a century. And sitting there among it all is a smiling Tony Meyer ’49. That broad, gentle smile could reach from one side of campus to the other. It’s a smile that has charmed generations of students, parents, administrators – generally, anyone who has come into contact with the College. It’s no exaggeration to say that Meyer is an institution within an institution. He has seen and lived several chapters of the College’s history – from his student days in post–WW II America to the financial instability of the 1960s, from the integration of campus and the College becoming state supported, to the steady growth of the MOMENTUM spring 2010 5
student body, academic curriculum and facilities through the 1970s and on. And his roles at the College have been as varied as the school’s history: superintendent of the gym, director of intramurals, health and physical education teacher, director of athletics, coach, counselor, alumni secretary, director of college relations and vice president of alumni and college relations. “I worked at a time when instead of a raise, you got a title,” laughs Meyer, who officially “retired” in 1994, but still dutifully comes into the office every day. The title he’s most proud of? Educator. “I have always considered myself more of a teacher than an administrator,” Meyer points out. “Probably, one of my greatest accomplishments was being the first professor in South Carolina to teach a human sexuality course. It was in the late 1960s and early 1970s that I just felt like our health and hygiene course at the College didn’t cover the subject in depth. Human sexuality is more than just biology and anatomy, it’s also sociology, literature, ethics and psychology.” 6 MOMENTUM SPRING 2010
It’s that ability to innovate and try new things on campus that has always appealed to Meyer. “When I was a student here, I learned to love learning,” he says. “And I have seen that lesson – that passion, really – play out at every level here at the College.” That’s why Meyer has instructed that a portion of his estate go to a scholarship in
“When I was a student here, I learned to love learning. And I have seen that lesson – that passion, really – play out at every level here at the College.” – Tony Meyer ‘49
his name. However, unlike other financial support, he does not want its awarding to hinge on academic excellence, but rather on demonstrated leadership and extracurricular interests. Meyer believes in making the College accessible to as many students as
possible, because he is a product of that accessibility. When the College was a municipal institution supported by the City of Charleston, Meyer was able to attend the College for free as a city resident.
“I grew up just six blocks away from the campus,” Meyer recalls. “At that time, Ansonborough was a working-class neighborhood, and many people used to say that nothing good came out of ‘the borough.’ My parents had dropped out of elementary school, and my siblings also had to leave school early to help out with family expenses during the Great Depression.” As a first-generation college student, Meyer knows firsthand the transformative power of education. “I believe in a College of Charleston education,” Meyer explains. “It means a richer life because you learn to appreciate so much more. A college education opens up doors of possibility. It certainly did in my life. My hope for this scholarship is that it eliminates the resource barrier for the regular guy or gal … the deserving student who wants to learn.” And despite his many achievements at the College, that scholarship for “the regular guy or gal” will perhaps be his greatest legacy – a tradition most fitting for an institution like Tony Meyer. M
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News & updates
calendar apr
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A Charleston Affair The Alumni Association’s signature annual reception honoring the Class of 2010. Where: The Cistern Yard Time: 7 p.m. International Piano Series Bach Extravaganza/School of the Arts 20th-anniversary signature event. Where: Sottile Theatre Time: 8 p.m. Graduate School Commencement Featuring commencement speaker Lucy Garrett Beckham ’70, principal of Wando High School (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.) and 2010 national principal of the year. Where: Sottile Theatre Time: 5:30 p.m. Undergraduate Commencement Featuring commencement speaker Marco Cavazzoni, vice president and general manager of Boeing Charleston. Where: The Cistern Yard Time: morning ceremony – 10 a.m. afternoon ceremony – 4 p.m.
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opening of the new arts center The School of the Arts celebrated the opening of the Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts in January. The 70,000-square-foot Cato Center for the Arts, which was made possible by a multi-million–dollar gift from the Catos, houses the music, studio art and theatre departments and is the new home for the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. Specifically, the center contains practice rooms; large studio spaces for movement, dance, lighting, painting and photography; faculty offices as well as the Hill Exhibition Gallery, a catering kitchen and a state-of-the-art administrative conference room.
David Beats Goliath In January, the men’s basketball team upset the defending national champion, the University of North Carolina, in a thrilling overtime victory at the College’s Carolina First Arena.
A virtual tour first Last fall, the College, in partnership with City Slicker, unveiled the nation’s first interactive self-guided university tour application. The media-rich, highdefinition tours feature GPS assistance, 18 student-narrated videos, historical information and nearly 60 images of more than 20 campus spots. Download the free app at the Apple iTunes Store.
in the business of giving Jack Tate, a South Carolina entrepreneur who founded Carolina Baby Superstores, is donating up to $1 million over the next two years to the School of Business. The fund will support two key initiatives – the new Center of Vietnamese Enterprise and the pending M.B.A. program.
science finds a new address on Campus The new School of Sciences and Mathematics Building opened for students and faculty this winter. Besides classrooms, laboratories and faculty offices, the 117,00-square-foot building features a fresh-air–only ventilation system, a greenhouse, an auditorium, research labs, NASA space-grant offices, the Lowcountry Hazards Center and a natural history museum with fossils of creatures native to the state on loan from Charleston collector Mace Brown.
Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in the the Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts
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THE COLLEGE for a Day Learn. Experience. Enjoy. An overview of Spoleto Festival USA and the arts led by School of the Arts faculty. Where: Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts Time: 9:30 a.m.–4 p.m. To Broadway and Back A celebration of the School of the Arts’ 20th anniversary, featuring Broadway veterans Mel Marvin ’62 and Margaret Anne Florence ’01; live and silent auctions and food from exclusive, local chefs. Chaired by Eve Berlinsky and Cathy Marino. Where: Emmett Robinson Theatre and the School of the Arts buildings Time: Evening Note: $200 per ticket; VIP and sponsorship packages available MOMENTUM spring 2010 9
happenings
Alumni Awards Banquet (l to r): David Hay ’81, Gary Rackley ’65 and Keith Sauls ’90
Campus lecture: Jack Tate, who is the namesake for the School of Business’ Tate Center for Entrepreneurship
Alumni Awards Banquet (l to r): President P. George Benson, Billy Silcox ’65 and First Lady Jane Benson
Opening of the Cato Center for the Arts (l to r): Wayland H. Cato Jr. and James B. Edwards ’50
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Opening of the Marion and Wayland H. Cato Jr. Center for the Arts (l to r): Anne Barnes, Gary Dietrich, Carolyn Dietrich, Janie Sylvan and Joe Sylvan
Opening of the Cato Center for the Arts (l to r): Marion Cato, Thomas Cooper and Ann Cooper
Cistern Society luncheon (l to r): Provost George Hynd, Mandy Welsh Geils ’64 and George Geils ’63
happenings
Cistern Society luncheon (l to r): Raymond Kessler and Lenora Kessler
Alumni Awards Banquet (l to r): David Masich, Charles Harvey, Maureen McManus ’13 and Sibby Craver Harvey ’58
Opening of the Cato Center for the Arts (l to r): Catherine MacDonald, George Stevens and Marilynn Hill
Creatures from the Past Benefit and Gala (l to r): Mace Brown and Will Brown
Unveiling of new virtual campus tour app for the iPhone: Jamar Brown ’12 and Tommy Dew ’90 (at podium)
Cistern Society luncheon (l to r): Malcolm Clark and Janice Clark
Alumni Awards Banquet (l to r): Jack Huguley ’72, Dan Ravenel ’72, Tina Psillos Padgett ’78 and Greg Padgett ’79 MOMENTUM spring 2010 11
development spotlight
A Gift and a Giver That Keep on Giving
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Photo by Cox Photography
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ich Haddad ’75 believes in the power of a College of Charleston education. So much so that he and his wife, Shannon Withrock Haddad ’78, who are consistent supporters of the College, made a planned gift that will help ensure the vitality and accessibility of their alma mater for future generations of students. “The College gave me a chance, both athletically and academically,” Haddad says about why he gives. “Someone provided funds for me and also my wife to go to college. If our support can help with another person’s education, then it’s our honor to pay it back and help our school.” To learn more about planned giving, contact the Office of Gift Planning, which is available to offer ideas and creative ways to support the College through estate planning. Bequests, trusts, retirement accounts, noncash assets, gift annuities and insurance can all play a part in a perpetual benefit to the College. For more information, please visit www.cofc.edu/giving or contact David Masich, director of gift planning, by phone at 843.953.1835 or by e-mail at masichd@cofc.edu.