Trustee donates $200,000 to Cornell College to fund Commons project, Pre-Law

MOUNT VERNON – Cornell College trustee and alumna Sheryl Atkinson Stoll says she owes much of her success to her alma mater. Now, Cornell students can say they owe much of their success to Sheryl Stoll. Stoll and her husband William have donated $200,000 to Cornell in support of the Pre-Law Program she helped create and to help fund [...]

Mellon Foundation awards $316,000 for Environmental Studies

MOUNT VERNON – The Environmental Studies Program at Cornell College has been awarded a $316,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to enhance curriculum and further interdisciplinary study. The funds will be used to enhance integration of existing courses, develop field courses in Latin America, help introduce new courses, and to create a capstone course [...]

Former Cornell basketball player donates $25,000 to Ram athletics

MOUNT VERNON – A $25,000 gift from Jim Hughes ’63 will support athletic programs and will help refurbish the Richard and Norma Small Multi-Sport Center. Hughes has been a longtime supporter of Cornell, giving steadily for years. He said he had always planned to give back to Cornell in a big way. “Cornell’s always had a special [...]

Cornell receives grant to support environmental studies

MOUNT VERNON – Cornell College is pleased to announce that it has received a grant from the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation. Cornell College will receive $10,000 per year for up to five years and an additional stock gift. The gift will provide funding for Cornell’s environmental studies program. “This is an exceptional gift from an exceptional [...]

Anonymous donor gifts $100,000

MOUNT VERNON – A class of 1967 alumnus has pledged an unrestricted gift of $100,000 to Cornell College as the Extraordinary Opportunities Campaign nears its $92 million goal. The donor wished the gift to remain anonymous, but encourages other alumni and friends to step forward during this crucial juncture in the college’s history. As an [...]

Durhams donate $250,000 to Commons project

MOUNT VERNON — A $250,000 gift from Tom and the Rev. Martha Hemenway Durham will help provide a much-needed face-lift to the center point of Cornell College, The Commons. The Durhams are both Cornell graduates of the late 1970s, just over 10 years after The Commons opened. Now, 30 years later, the couple saw a need [...]

Pfeiffer…finished

On Wednesday, January 28, as most students were relaxing, heading home, or otherwise enjoying block break, nearly 160 students were moving into the newest residence hall on campus. Pfeiffer. While not new in the truest sense of the word, there’s very little about Pfeiffer that’s old. New rooms, new stairs, a new lounge, improved temperature control, an [...]

McGranes gift $550,000 for President’s house, programs

MOUNT VERNON – A $550,000 gift from Cornell alumni John McGrane and Martha (Marty) Benson McGrane will renovate the President’s house, provide for a number of other campus programs, and acquire property for Cornell’s future growth. The McGranes both graduated from Cornell in 1973. John is a partner with the law firm of Morgan, Lewis [...]

Class of 1958 endows environmental studies

MOUNT VERNON – As part of their 50th reunion gift, the Cornell College class of 1958 has donated over $677,000 in cash, pledges, and planned gifts to Cornell to endow the environmental studies program and to fund a scholarship in environmental studies. The gift honors long-time geology professor Herb Hendriks, who started one of the first [...]

Whitsons leave $2.5 million to Cornell scholarship in son’s name

MOUNT VERNON – A $2.5 million estate gift will further endow a Cornell College scholarship in honor of an alumnus who died of leukemia in 1974. Lee and Dorothy Whitson, whose son Frank Whitson graduated from Cornell in 1970, established the Frank N. Whitson Memorial Scholarship Fund after the death of their only child in 1974. “Lee [...]

Emeritus professor donates for Cornell chaplain, chapel

MOUNT VERNON – A $60,000 gift from Linda and Truman Jordan, professor emeritus of chemistry, will help endow the Cornell College chaplain position and further improvements to King Chapel. Jordan is an honorary alumnus of Cornell who began his career at Cornell in 1966. He was granted emeritus status in 2002 and has remained active on [...]

Wallace is first Presidential Fellow

Internationally renowned playwright Naomi Wallace will be the first Presidential Fellow at Cornell College this year, teaching Playwriting II in the first month. The Presidential Fellows program seeks to bring leading scholars to campus to teach a course that enriches the curriculum. Because of the One-Course-At-A-Time calendar, scholars can teach an entire course in 3 1/2 [...]

Alumnus donates memorial for wife to Cornell College

MOUNT VERNON – A Cornell alumnus has donated $250,000 to the King Chapel renovation in honor of his late wife, Ruth “Gussie” Ohlsen Warden. Charles Warden and his wife both graduated from Cornell in 1941. Charles went on to a successful career in law and real estate. The gift will fund the Ruth Ohlsen Warden Memorial Elevator [...]

Alumna’s history with chapel draws donation

MOUNT VERNON – A Cornell alumna’s $130,000 donation will help renovate Cornell College’s historic King Chapel and repair the aging organ. Lois Wilkinson Sieben, a 1938 graduate of Cornell, learned to play the organ and the piano at the college, and went on to become a church organist and piano teacher. King Chapel will be undergoing renovations [...]

Alumni gift will enhance Cornell College endowment

MOUNT VERNON – A $500,000 gift from Cornell alumni Dick and Beth Brubaker will help grow the Cornell College endowment fund, bring speakers to campus, create more opportunities for student off-campus study, and improve athletic facilities. Dick Brubaker, a 1955 graduate and the founder of Richwrap Inc., is in his third year as chair of the [...]

$2 million gift will create endowed chair

MOUNT VERNON – A $2 million planned gift from Cornell alumna Jean Russell will create an endowed faculty chair at Cornell College and support other campus priorities. Russell graduated from Cornell College in 1965 and worked at Washington University in St. Louis in the Department of Medicine, the School of Dental Medicine, and the Division of [...]

Cornell parent, life trustee donates $1 million for admission center

MOUNT VERNON – A $1 million gift from Cornell parent and life trustee Peter Paul Luce will expand and modernize Cornell College’s admission center. Luce, of Englewood, Colo., connected with Cornell when his daughter Lynn was drawn to Cornell’s One-Course-At-A-Time calendar. Luce served Cornell as a trustee when Lynn began at Cornell in 1989. He became [...]

Matman founder leaves six-figure pension to Cornell

MOUNT VERNON —Warren DePrenger, the owner and founder of Matman Wrestling, a wrestling uniform and gear manufacturer, has donated proceeds of a pension plan valued at $700,000 to Cornell College. DePrenger, a former teacher and wrestling coach, was a four-time conference champion wrestler at Cornell and is a member of Cornell’s Athletics Hall of Fame. He [...]

Cornell College awarded Carver Grant

MOUNT VERNON – Cornell College has been awarded a grant from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust in the amount of $178,521 to purchase equipment for the biochemistry and molecular biology program. The funds will be used to purchase cell culture equipment, a gel documentation system, an atomic absorption spectrometer, and a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer. “The way [...]

Lively leaves $1.3 million gift to Cornell endowment

MOUNT VERNON — A $1.3 million living trust from an Iowa native will establish a Cornell College endowed scholarship fund for students who attended high school in and around Marshall County, Iowa. John Lively, a 1955 Cornell graduate and longtime volunteer, said he wanted to give something back to Cornell College, and to others who knew [...]

$1 million gift to Cornell modernizes Commons, creates new programs

MOUNT VERNON — A $1 million gift to Cornell College from a Scottsdale, Ariz., couple is modernizing The Commons, creating new programs, and initiating a speaker’s fund as part of the college’s $92 million comprehensive campaign launched in October. The gift is from the Riesen Foundation, supported by Cornell graduates Dean and Bambi Riesen. Dean, a [...]

Cornell receives $1.5 million estate gift

MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College will establish endowed scholarship funds in music and politics with a gift of approximately $1.5 million from the estate of an alumna and former high school music teacher. Dorris Board Hill, a 1943 Cornell graduate, died July 1 in her Muncie, Ind., home. She was 84. She was born in Cascade, [...]

Cornell receives more than $20 million, edges closer to $92 million campaign goal

MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College has received multimillion-dollar commitments from two alumni – $15.1 million from Richard Small of Tulsa, Okla., Cornell’s most generous benefactor, and $5 million from John Smith, president and CEO of Cedar Rapids-based CRST International – moving the college closer to a $92 million campaign goal that will be celebrated with [...]

Armstrong Trust commits $250,000 to Cornell bookstore renovation

MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College has received a $250,000 pledge from the Esther and Robert Armstrong Charitable Trust to fund a new campus bookstore in The Commons, Cornell’s student union that was built during Esther Armstrong’s tenure on the college’s board of trustees. Esther Armstrong was an honorary alumna of Cornell and life trustee on Cornell’s [...]

$475,638 to Cornell from beloved professor’s estate

MOUNT VERNON — Cornell College has received a gift of $475,638 from the estate of a beloved speech professor who is credited with encouraging the career path of a student who would become a Hall of Fame baseball announcer. Emeritus professor of speech Walter Stromer died May 12, 2005, at age 84. He taught at Cornell [...]