$7 Million Will Honor Gardner in Pratt School of Engineering

Fishes Give $1 Million for Library

Torrays Establish Scholarship

Lisa Lee and Marc Ewing Give $3 Million for Women's Studies

$7 Million Will Honor Gardner in Pratt School of Engineering
The son of former Duke University engineering professor William Henry “Nick” Gardner, Jr. is giving $7 million to Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. Alston Gardner of Atlanta made the gift to endow two professorships, eight graduate fellowships, and an undergraduate scholarship fund, all named for his father (see Donor Profile).

“Nick’s career exemplifies the service to society that our engineering graduates provide; his work on some of Duke’s most important buildings provides ample testimony to his enduring skills,” President Keohane said.

The gift will provide $2 million for the W.H. Gardner, Jr. Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering; $750,000, matched with $250,000 from the Bass Program for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, for the W.H. Gardner, Jr. Associate Professorship; $4 million for eight graduate fellowships, to be known as the W.H. Gardner, Jr. Society of Engineering Fellows; $250,000, matched with funds from The Duke Endowment Scholarship Challenge for North and South Carolina students, for the W.H. Gardner, Jr. Scholarship Fund, which will provide need-based financial assistance for Duke engineering undergraduates from the Carolinas.

Fishes Give $1 Million for Library
Gretchen Schroder Fish W’68 and her husband, Edward A. Fish, have given $1 million to Duke University Libraries to support renovation of Perkins Library.

“Gretchen and Ed have been generous supporters of Duke and our libraries for many years,” President Keohane said. “I am grateful for this most recent expression of confidence in the University.”

Gretchen Fish is a member of the Campaign for Duke Steering Committee and the Library Advisory Board and its major gifts committee. She served on the search committee that recruited David S. Ferriero, Duke’s vice provost and librarian.

“The libraries are the heart of Duke, vital to every student and faculty member, and we are pleased to be able to contribute to their continued excellence,” Gretchen Fish said.

Torrays Establish Scholarship
Robert E. Torray T’59 and his wife, Nancy, have given more than $1 million to provide financial aid for economically disadvantaged undergraduates.

Bob Torray is founder and chairman of the investment management firm Robert E. Torray & Co. Inc., of Bethesda, Maryland, president of the Torray Corp., and manager of the Torray Fund.

The Torray Scholarship is directed to assist primarily those students whose families can make little or no contribution to the cost of their child’s college education. Approximately 10 percent of the class of 2003 was in that category, and two members of the class received inaugural Torray scholarships.

“Nancy and I are deeply moved to have this opportunity to support Duke’s efforts to attract students whose personal finances would otherwise make attending Duke difficult or, in some cases, impossible,” Bob Torray said. “We view this as an important investment not only in the young people we are helping, but in the future of our society.”

Lisa Lee and Marc Ewing Give $3 Million for Women’s Studies
Lisa Lee G’99, a new Duke Ph.D., and her husband, Marc Ewing, a founder of software company Red Hat, are giving nearly $3 million to endow a professorship and five fellowships in women’s studies.

At a New York City conference celebrating Duke’s Women’s Studies Program and the accomplishments of generations of Duke women (page 1), President Keohane announced the gift, saying that it would “help ensure that scholarship on women’s lives continues to flourish at Duke.”

The gift will endow a professorship, a post-doctoral fellowship and four graduate fellowships, with The Duke Endowment providing one dollar for every three that Lee and Ewing contribute to the graduate fellowships. Lee and Ewing will also give Duke funds to spend in support of fellows starting next year. Their complete gift will be $2,990,000, and with the matching funds will create endowments totaling $3,200,000.

The $1.5 million endowed professorship will be named for Jean Fox O’Barr, the Margaret Taylor Smith Director of the Women’s Studies Program. Smith W’47 formerly chaired the Kresge Foundation and Duke’s Council on Women’s Studies; O’Barr has been director of the program since it began in 1983.

The Lisa Lee and Marc Ewing Post-Doctoral Fellowship will be a $500,000 endowed fund to support research in women’s studies of a Ph.D. recipient, with a preference for a student whose academic work includes German studies. Each of the graduate fellowships will be endowed with a total of $300,000, three quarters from Lee and Ewing and one quarter from The Duke Endowment.

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