University of Maryland Giving Newsletter: December 2018—Inspiration

INSPIRATION A N E W S L E T T E R F OR S U PP ORT E R S OF T H E U N I V E R S I T Y OF M A RY L A N D / D E C E M B E R 2 0 18

TO TRANSFORM THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE / BOLDNESS TO TURN IMAGINATION INTO INNOVATION CURIOSITY TO DISCOVER NEW KNOWLEDGE / PASSION TO INSPIRE MARYLAND PRIDE

N EW IDE A IN TH E WO RKS A LU M D O N ATE S TO ENGINEERING I N N OVATI O N S PACE PG.4

DEAR MARYLAND SUPPORTERS, As the semester comes to an end and students head home to their friends and family, I am particularly grateful for all you have made possible at the University of Maryland. Your support has led us to a wonderful milestone to close out 2018.

I am pleased to report that we have surpassed $1 billion in gifts for Fearless Ideas: The Campaign for Maryland. We, as a community, have come together to support every corner of education and opportunity on our campus. Your generosity provides a Maryland education to deserving students through scholarships, experiential learning opportunities, new facilities and faculty support.

You’ll see several stories about the power of scholarships in this campaign newsletter, including a new one for aspiring sportswriters in honor of the late John McNamara ’83. Your gifts have created professorships and research opportunities, such as alumnus Fred Feldman’s new endowment to support doctoral students in chemistry and biochemistry. You’ve helped build five new buildings on campus—and counting.

Thanks to the generous leadership gift from inventor and entrepreneur Emilio A. Fernandez ’69, we recently broke ground on the IDEA Factory, an exciting new space where students and faculty from all schools and colleges can create and innovate.

Together, these gifts help shape a transformative educational experience for thousands of Terps. Thank you for making this possible.

While this campaign is not finished just yet, we are making great progress toward our unprecedented $1.5 billion goal. Please accept my deepest thanks for your continued support of our flagship university.

Jackie Lewis Vice President for University Relations President, University of Maryland College Park Foundation

COVER PHOTO BY JOHN T. CONSOLI ’86

Best wishes to you in the new year,

INSPIRATION / 3

A FIRST IN WOMEN’S STUDIES Groundbreaker in Program at UMD Creates Its Inaugural Merit-Based Scholarship

By Carly Taylor ’19

PHOTO: COURTESY OF SHAPIRO

MINDY SHAPIRO ’82 was a trailblazer

in women’s studies at Maryland, earning the first undergraduate degree in the field, back when Maryland’s department was a young program.

Today, the self-described Jewish feminist and nonprofit leader is behind another milestone, making a $60,000 gift to create the first merit-based undergraduate scholarship in the Department of Women’s Studies.

Named for her late mother, Charlotte Brozer Shapiro, the endowed and current-use scholarship will go to women’s studies majors, with a preference to students pursuing Jewish or religious studies.

“The academic focus is not an end unto itself,” Shapiro says of future recipients. “It’s a step in the direction of doing good in the world for others.”

Shapiro looked up to her mother, who graduated from high school early and studied at UMD for one year, in 1949–50, before leaving to start a family.

“When I grew up, the messages were ‘make sure you look good’ and ‘you need to have a boyfriend and make sure you get married,’” Shapiro said. “My mom was such a role model not only because she valued female friendships, but because of her bravery during her illness. So I learned about bravery from her as well.”

Shapiro says she wasn’t a strong student in grade school, but a women’s studies class at Maryland sparked her love for learning. A major did not yet exist at Maryland, so she created one with the help of the Women’s Studies and Independent Studies programs.

“Unlike any other time in my life,” she says, “I actually felt like the professors saw me as someone who actually was smart, and they nurtured me and I became academically successful.”

The scholarship recognizes the importance of women’s studies as an academic discipline, says Ruth Zambrana, professor and interim chair in the Department of Women’s Studies.

The bravery of Charlotte Brozer Shapiro, shown during her year as a student at the University of Maryland, inspired her daughter, Mindy Shapiro, to create a scholarship in the Department of Women’s Studies.

“Ms. Shapiro is not only giving students funds, but she’s also providing them with a sense of empowerment that she gained in women’s studies,” Zambrana said. “I think Ms. Shapiro’s story is inspiring for all of us as educators of this next generation.”

Shapiro’s mother never saw her graduate; she died of an aggressive form of cancer at age 48, when Shapiro was 20. Shapiro went on to earn a master’s degree in women’s studies and public policy from the George Washington University. She worked as a Hillel director in various locations for a decade, an experience she likened to women’s studies in that they are both about claiming identity.

A founder of the National Women’s Studies Association’s Jewish Women’s Caucus, Shapiro remains active in contributing to women’s studies beyond campus borders.

“My career success and commitment to repairing the world are a direct result of what I learned at Maryland,” she says.

N EW ID EA IN TH E WO RKS A LU M D O N ATE S TO ENGINEERING I N N OVATI O N S PACE

By Anne Dankelson

E

ver since he can remember, Emilio A. Fernandez Jr. ’69 has been tinkering, imagining and experimenting. Now, the accomplished entrepreneur and inventor is helping the University of Maryland’s creative minds do the same.

Fernandez, who helped develop e-reader technology and made key contributions to the railroad industry, has pledged a naming gift to help build the E.A. Fernandez IDEA (Innovate, Design and Engineer for America) Factory, a substantial addition to the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building designed to encourage faculty and

students to disrupt conventional thinking in areas such as robotics, manufacturing, quantum technology and the “internet of things.”

A ceremonial groundbreaking was held on Nov. 13 on the site of the neighboring Potomac Building, demolished over the summer.

Construction is expected to be completed in 2021.

“Synergy—when the sum of two plus two is a lot more than four—is a crucial part of the Factory’s mission,” Fernandez says. “And that’s what’s going to happen in here.”

A member of the UMCPF Board of

INSPIRATION / 5

Gemo the robot assists VIPs, including Emilio A. Fernandez ’69 (fourth from right) at the ceremonial groundbreaking of the IDEA Factory.

“SYNERGY—WHEN THE SUM OF TWO PLUS TWO IS A LOT MORE THAN FOUR—IS A CRUCIAL PART OF THE FACTORY’S MISSION.” EMILIO A. FERNANDEZ JR. ’69

Trustees and the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s Board of Visitors, Fernandez came to the U.S. from Cuba alone at an early age, first living with friends in Florida, and then his parents in Bethesda, Md. He spent his high school years taking apart radios, toasters and other electronics and entering science fairs.

PHOTOS BY JOHN T. CONSOLI ’86

Fence wraps encircle the site of the IDEA Factory adjacent to the Jeong H. Kim Engineering Building.

To help finance his education at UMD, he worked part-time in a physics lab, helped with research and learned technical skills, but he spent most of his time in the engineering building, calling it his home away from home.

Fernandez met fellow Cuban immigrant Angel “Angie” Bezos there during sophomore year and asked him one day in class if he wanted to start a company. The pair developed a locomotive recorder device after graduation, then in 1977 co-founded Pulse Electronics, whose patents include train brake controls and separation detection.

The IDEA Factory will be a 60,000-square-foot space with five floors, including research and design labs, conference rooms and offices.

ALEx’s Garage, a space for student competition and design teams will be another prominent feature. (The acronym refers to a project designation associated with the development of the e-book.)

Long vistas will make the activities throughout the building visible to passersby. The IDEA Factory will also be home to the Startup Shell, the student-run incubator.

Fernandez hopes to encourage scientific dialogue, and the IDEA Factory’s open concept and plan for a dining area strives to foster the sharing of ideas.

“There could be a casual understanding of what one group is doing just over a cup of coffee,” he says.

The IDEA Factory will advance the Clark School’s mission of developing leading engineers, transforming the engineering discipline and accelerating innovation and entrepreneurship.

“The E.A. Fernandez IDEA Factory will be a space for the greatest minds of our time to work together to create engineering breakthroughs and solve the grand challenges of the 21st century,” says Darryll Pines, Nariman Farvardin professor and Clark School dean.

6 / INSPIRATION

LONG GAME Fan Turns Into Student-Athletes’ Supporter, Mentor

Alum Supports Next Generation of Engineers in A. James Clark Hall

By Annie Dankelson

By Liam Farrell

DESPITE LIVING IN FLORIDA for much

PHOTO BY GREG FIUME

of the year, Stuart Bowers ’81 shares a suite at Maryland Stadium, tries to attend every home football game and road-trips

A BUILDER AND REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER who

has bred and raced horses and made a mark in Hollywood production, Stanley Zupnik ’59 (above, center) found that his engineering degree had unlimited applications.

“We don’t think with our hearts, we think with our heads,” Zupnik says. “Engineers are problem solvers.”

To help educate the next generation of them, the longtime supporter of UMD recently made a $2.5 million gift. The donation is Zupnik’s fourth to the A. James Clark School of Engineering and, in recognition, the Forum in A. James Clark Hall will be renamed in Zupnik’s honor.

“I love electronics and technology,” he says of the high-tech forum, which can host conferences, lectures and seminars. “It was overwhelming when I saw it.”

Zupnik has always been fascinated by how things are put together, fixing stereos and televisions as a side job in high school and working in construction while at UMD. In addition to developing commercial and residential buildings in the Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., area, his horse Direct Scooter was a world champion.

And in 1992, he produced the movie adaptation of David Mamet’s play “Glengarry Glen Ross.”

When he walks into a room, Zupnik says, he looks at the structure instead of the furniture or artwork, picking apart how it all came together. That mental approach, he says, is invaluable in any industry.

“I don’t see the end result, I see all the little pieces put together,” he says. “You can do so many things with that knowledge.”

each year to the men’s Big Ten basketball tournament. He even met his wife, Mary, at a 2001 game at Cole Field House, and now they cheer the Terps together.

“It allows us to meet more people equally excited about Maryland,” he says.

Bowers (below left, with family) supports student-athletes beyond the stands as well. The former Terrapin Club president funds a scholarship for a student-athlete, and has generously donated to Maryland Athletics, the Cole Field House Vision Fund, basketball and lacrosse. He’s also endowed a need-based scholarship in his father David Bowers ’54’s name for a student in the Incentive Awards Program. Now he’s committing to providing ongoing student-athlete support through a new bequest to establish the D. Stuart Bowers Athletics Endowment.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF STUART BOWERS

SEEING THE PARTS OF A WHOLE

“You see how hard it is being a Division I athlete,” Bowers says. “It’s a full-time job. These kids are very dedicated, very impressive.”

Bowers, who grew up in the Baltimore suburbs, studied government and politics and enthusiastically watched Terps football and basketball while at the University of Maryland.

After graduation, a Zeta Psi fraternity brother working at the asset management company Legg Mason encouraged him to apply for a position there.

Bowers landed that job, and has been in the financial services space ever since, most recently as president of brokerage solutions at SS&C Technologies.

He’s enjoyed giving back to his alma mater, especially through the relationships he forms with the students he supports. Louis Dubick ’18, a recipient of Bowers’ scholarship, has experienced that firsthand. The third-generation Terps lacrosse player graduated in three years, is working on a master’s degree in finance and has a job lined up at Morgan Stanley in New York City.

“It’s been a constant contact, not only as a friend, but a support system,” Dubick says. “People like Stuart allow myself and my teammates to have this opportunity here. And this opportunity provides other opportunities.”

INSPIRATION / 7

NEW SCHOLARSHIP TO HONOR FALLEN SPORTSWRITER Widow, Friends Hope to Continue Mentor’s Legacy to Students

By Alexander A. Pyles

PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE CAPITAL/BALTIMORE SUN MEDIA GROUP

LONGTIME SPORTSWRITER John

McNamara ’83 was a stealth mentor, often agreeing in his low-key way to meet over lunch or chat on the phone with student journalists or fledgling sports reporters.

It was a familiar role: “Johnny Mac,” as he was known, had been elevating the prose and professionalism of his peers since he was a reporter and editor at The Diamondback.

McNamara’s loss as a mentor and authority on Terps sports, which he covered for more than 20 years, is keenly felt since he and four colleagues were killed in the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis on June 28.

But he’ll continue to inspire sports journalists at the University of

memory. The first recipient will be selected next year.

“I’m so delighted,” she says. “It would have meant the world to John to be remembered as a sportswriter and a mentor to students. He often told me how much he enjoyed meeting with his colleagues, and helping them, but I am struck that he didn’t think of those meetings as mentoring anyone, but clearly the people he met with, did.”

Merrill College Dean Lucy A. Dalglish says she was grateful for the opportunity to help students who might otherwise struggle to pay tuition, while also honoring McNamara.

“Walking around campus, I’m struck by how many people remember John,” Dalglish says. “Teachers, students,

Maryland through a new scholarship established for undergraduate students interested in that field at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

McNamara’s widow, Andrea Chamblee ’83, whom he met at The Diamondback, and several of his friends created the scholarship in his

journalists and staff in the athletics department remember John very, very fondly.”

McNamara’s fourth book, with the working title “The Capital of Basketball,” a history of the sport in Washington, D.C., will be released in early 2019.

THE UNIVERSITY OF

MARYLAND

IS COMING TO

ATLANTA THURSDAY, JAN. 24

HOWARD COUNTY WEDNESDAY, FEB. 20 Join President Wallace D. Loh, fellow Terp leaders and students for an experiential evening showcasing Fearless Ideas—our boldest campaign shaping Maryland and the world.

fearlessideas.umd.edu

University Relations Office of Strategic Communications 2101 Turner Hall, 7736 Baltimore Ave. College Park, MD 20742

BY FRED FELDMAN PH.D. ’67

PHOTO: COURTESY OF FELDMAN

W HY I G I VE

I certainly didn’t start out as the best student. I grew up in a tenement in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, which was a rough neighborhood then, and still is. I spent more time on the streets than in the classroom. What finally lifted me out of that life was higher education—first at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, and then graduate school in chemistry at the University of Maryland. I may not have been the most serious student when I entered college, but I certainly became one at Maryland, among excellent professors and fellow students.

After I received my Ph.D., I had a long and fruitful career in the fields of clinical diagnostic instrumentation and biotechnology. I lived around the world, helped build a successful biotech startup— which I consider kind of a capstone career experience—and later on served as parttime CEO and board member to lend my experience to a number of companies just getting started.

fearlessideas.umd.edu

Decades later, I still feel very close and grateful to the University of Maryland, so my wife, Claire, and I have pledged $100,000 to establish the Fredric J. Feldman Ph.D. ’67 and Claire Feldman Student Success Endowment for graduate students in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

I remember lining up back in the mid’60s with other graduate students in the chairman’s office to collect our $73 stipend, and then getting our first good meal of the week. Money is rarely easy for graduate students to come by, and the idea behind our gift is to provide funds for the little “extras” that make graduate study easier and more rewarding, including special projects, writing workshops, dissertation completion awards, travel, scholarships and other programs.

The University of Maryland was where it all started for me. It was where I married my wife, had my first child, made lifelong friends and launched my career. If our gift helps today’s students experience some of the satisfaction and success that I have enjoyed, I will be very happy, indeed.

fred feldman ph.d. ’67, now retired and an avid biker, has been a senior executive, CEO and president of several small and large medical diagnostic and biotechnology companies. He also served as a board member in a number of private and public companies.