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A Newsletter for Friends and Alumni of the University of Washington
News Stories
A Tribute to Hunter Simpson, A Giant Among Giants
In a region populated by larger-than-life figures, W. Hunter Simpson (‘49) was a giant among giants. His leadership brought dramatic results at IBM and Physio-Control, but he also knew when it was time to stop working and go home to wife, Dottie, and children Brooks, Anne and Christine. “I never met a successful person who carried home a heavy briefcase,” he’d say, uttering what friends and family call a “Hunterism.” Whether in the board room or on board his beloved sailboat, Hunter lived life with a robust appreciation for the things that truly matter: family, friends, fun, hard work, and making a difference in the lives of others.
Friends and family gathered at the UW on Jan. 28 to celebrate the life of Hunter Simpson, who died Jan. 20, and to recognize a history of volunteer and philanthropic service to his alma mater spanning more than four decades.
A graduate of the UW Business School, Hunter’s leadership at the University included his service as a UW Regent (‘81 to ‘93), UW Foundation Board director (‘90 to ‘92), past president of the UW Alumni Association, and a founder of the Washington Research Foundation.
In the latter organization, his visionary guidance and entrepreneurial acumen helped the organization license technology developed at the University, contributing significantly to the UW’s rise to become one of the nation’s top public research institutions.
In 2002, Hunter and Dottie were honored with the first-ever Gates Volunteer Service Award in recognition of their outstanding support of the UW. The couple, who were named UW Laureates in 2001, also gave generously to many areas of the University, notably Athletics, Medicine, Law, the Graduate School, Arts & Sciences and student support funds.
In remarks delivered at the celebration ceremony, former UW President William Gerberding said Hunter could well be remembered as “one of the greatest Regents in the history of the institution.”
“The lives of the people in this audience and many others were deeply enriched by Hunter Simpson,” he said. “We are all of us very lucky that a giant moved among us.
College of Arts and Sciences Reaches Faculty Endowment Goal
Campaign UW passed a major milestone last summer when the College of Arts and Sciences met an audacious goal: securing private support for 100 new faculty endowments. “Volunteers on our College Board said we had to think big when they proposed that goal,” says Dean David Hodge, “and they were right.”
The 100th faculty endowment was pledged by chemistry professor Larry Dalton and his wife, Nicole Boand, a volunteer on the College Board. The endowment honors Nicole’s parents, Harry and Catherine Jaynne Boand, who were successful business entrepreneurs. “Harry and Catherine Jaynne Boand were visionaries,” says Larry Dalton. “For American academic science to be successful, science faculty must be visionaries. We endowed the 100th professorship to permit the University of Washington to competitively recruit faculty who are truly visionary scientific leaders.”
Gifts and pledges to the College’s Campaign for 100 Professorships came in many sizes, from small gifts honoring beloved teachers such as history professor Jon Bridgman to a multi-million dollar commitment for the Jewish Studies program by local philanthropist Althea Stroum.
“The success of this effort goes beyond the money in many ways,” says Maggie Walker (‘74, ‘87), who co-chairs the College’s campaign effort. “One of the best parts is that it has allowed donors to make a difference in areas they really care about — whether that’s art history or conservation biology.” Maggie and her husband, Doug Walker, endowed professorships in history and mathematics, provided partial funding of a curatorship at the Henry Art Gallery, and endowed a rotating professorship that the dean may use to reward faculty excellence anywhere in the College.
“We are profoundly grateful for the generous contributions that let us reach this goal,” says Hodge. “When the College adopted the goal, there were only 18 faculty endowments in Arts & Sciences for 900 faculty members. Our faculty form the core of the University, teaching more than 25,000 undergraduate and graduate students. We always strive for excellence, not only for its own sake but also because of our commitment to creating futures that will transform lives and change the world.”
For more on the College of Arts and Sciences, visit www.artsci.washington.edu.
New Endowed Chair Honors Seymour Rabinovitch — Again
A beloved UW chemistry professor emeritus will be honored in perpetuity with an endowed chair in the Department of Chemistry. But this is not the first time that Seymour “Rab” Rabinovitch has been so honored. Six University endowments have been established on behalf of or by Rabinovitch and his family, including four that support chemistry students, faculty and staff, and a common room to foster collaborative work in the department. A sixth endowment, established by Rabinovitch in 1996 to support the metals program in the School of Art, was made in memory of his late wife, Marilyn Werby Rabinovitch.
Rabinovitch, whose contributions to the field of molecular dynamics are standard content in physical chemistry textbooks, retired in 1985 after teaching at the UW for nearly 40 years. He is still active in the department and remains one of its most highly regarded members. “Rab is a treasure,” says Paul Hopkins, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry. “Had his contributions here been limited to his teaching and research activities, we would consider ourselves extremely lucky to have had him. But he, his friends, and his family have chosen to go far beyond this with their recent gifts, leaving a legacy of enduring support for faculty, staff and students. These gifts will make a huge difference.”
For more on the Department of Chemistry, visit www.depts.washington.edu/chem/.
Social Work Students Benefit from Alum's Gratitude
Upon his return to the states from a tour of duty during World War II, Charles Cressey (‘48, ‘50) knew he wanted to make a difference. So he returned to the University of Washington to earn his bachelor’s degree in sociology and master’s degree in social work. After graduation, Cressey worked in various agencies before starting his own private practice specializing in marriage, children and families. “In school I learned what I really needed to know to ‘get it,’” he says. “I’m very grateful to the School of Social Work for that.”
To demonstrate his gratitude for his UW education, Cressey has made a pledge to the School of Social Work Scholars Program to reinvest in the next generation of social workers. The program encourages donors to pledge $6,000 over a three-year period for student scholarships. “We need good social workers out there and if I can help somebody get through school, I’m more than happy to do it,” he says.
“Support from alumni and friends give our students the tools they need to apply the skills they learn here,” says Dean Edwina Uehara. “And in today’s world, well-trained social workers are critical.”
For more on the School of Social Work, visit depts.washington.edu/sswweb/.
Armstrong and Breakfast Raise Awareness of Men’s Cancers
More than 1,100 people, including scores of cancer survivors, attended UW Medical Center’s Survivors Celebration Breakfast in December. Chaired by prostate cancer survivor Steve Fleischmann (‘79), the annual breakfast raises support for prostate cancer research.
“People don’t always want to talk about their troubles and men tend not to share their health concerns, especially around prostate cancer,” said Fleischmann, who was treated at UW Medical Center. “But today I want us all to see how many people are in this fight alongside us, how many people know just what we are going through.”
Keynote speaker Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France winner and testicular cancer survivor, credited women with giving men courage to speak out about men’s cancers. “We’re here talking about something men don’t want to talk about, but we can now because women paved the way a long time ago when they stood up and said, ‘I’m going to talk about breast cancer. I’m going to talk about ovarian cancer,’” Armstrong said.
Now in its second year, the breakfast has raised more than $2 million for the Institute for Prostate Cancer Research, a collaboration between UW Medicine and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.
For more on UW Medicine, visit www.uwmedicine.org.
Electronic music Pioneer Encourages Emerging Composers
University of Washington professor Diane Thome, a pioneer in electronic music, will help bring the work of student composers to life with planned gifts to the School of Music and the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media. Her gifts will support doctoral candidates who are emerging composers.
Thome, professor and chair of the composition program at the School of Music, studied computer synthesis of music during its formative stage. Thome’s works — including solo, chamber, choral, orchestral and electronic media compositions — have been presented in Europe, China, Australia, Israel, Canada and throughout the United States. The first woman to receive a Ph.D. in music from Princeton University, Thome has gained much recognition for her electronic and electroacoustic works, with luminous titles such as The Ruins of the Heart, Bright Air/Brilliant Fire and The Palaces of Memory.
“The creative process has engaged and exhilarated me in an absolutely essential way since I was a child,” Thome says. “I hope that these gifts will support creativity in younger composers for generations to come.”
For more on the School of Music, visit www.music.washington.edu. For more on the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media, visit www.washington.edu/dxarts.
Evans School Faculty and Staff Establish Fellowships
Thanks to the generosity of the faculty and staff at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs, graduate students in the school will now have greater opportunities to pursue the skills required to practice their craft and establish successful careers in government, nonprofit and private sector organizations.
Through their participation in the UW Faculty-Staff-Retiree Campaign for Students, Evans School faculty and staff are supporting fellowships that will allow the school’s graduate students to take advantage of opportunities like participating in internships focused on international development and peace issues, or studying cost-benefit analysis
at a variety of organizations.
Launched in May 2005, the Faculty-Staff-Retiree Campaign for Students honors the University’s past and present employees with named fellowships and scholarships.
“These generous contributions exemplify the dedication of our faculty and staff to our students,” says Evans School Dean Sandra Archibald. “In just the first few months of this campaign, faculty and staff have helped establish seven new endowed graduate fellowships, a further demonstration of their high level of investment in educational excellence.” UW
For more on the Evans School, visit www.evans.washington.edu/.
Engineering Receives UW's First Endowed Deanship
As CEO of the Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco), Frank Jungers (‘47) spent most of his career in Saudia Arabia, worlds away from the UW campus where he earned a degree in mechanical engineering. But he always remained true to his alma mater. Since his retirement, Frank and his wife, Julie, have given generously of their time and assets to support the College of Engineering and other UW programs, most notably with their 1995 gift to endow the Jungers Chair in Engineering.
Recently, the couple took their commitment to the University to a whole new level, and the result is a first in the institution’s history: an endowed deanship for the College of Engineering. The endowment was a powerful recruiting tool for the UW in its recent search for a new dean for the College. The first recipient of the Frank and Julie Jungers Endowed Deanship is Matthew O’Donnell, who assumes leadership of the College on Sept. 1. A physicist who formerly chaired the University of Michigan’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, O’Donnell is a highly regarded expert in imaging technologies in biomedicine and a leading visionary engineering educator.
“The endowment will enable Dean O’Donnell to stimulate new ideas and provide seed funding or support for programs and projects not funded by state or federal sources,” says UW Provost Phyllis Wise. “We are deeply grateful to Frank and Julie Jungers for this extraordinary enhancement.”
For more on the College of Engineering, visit www.engr.washington.edu/.
When Spencer Shaw was growing up in Hartford, Conn., in the 1930s, his parents encouraged him to wholeheartedly embrace his lifelong love of books and stories. Shaw heeded that advice, graduating from Virginia’s Hampton University in 1940 and later attending graduate school on a Carnegie Mellon Fellowship earmarked for African-Americans studying librarianship. His 60-year career as an educator, internationally renowned storyteller and children’s librarian took him all over the world, including Seattle, where he served for 17 years as a professor in the UW Information School (iSchool).
Shaw has maintained close ties to the University through his oversight of the iSchool’s annual Spencer G. Shaw Lecture Series, which brings noted children’s authors and illustrators to campus to tell their stories. Recently, Shaw announced a bequest that will ensure continuing support for the series, established by the school upon his retirement from the UW. “A good storyteller,” Shaw says, “can stimulate dormant imaginations and fire the creative spark in all of us.” Thanks to his generosity, stories and sparks of inspiration will continue to find life in the iSchool, now and in the years to come.
For more on the iSchool, visit www.ischool.washington.edu.
The Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) offers a simple way to support University of Washington students while demonstrating your Husky pride on your vehicle of choice — a specialty UW license plate.
Launched on March 22, the newly designed UW license plate was created by students in the School of Art’s graphic design program, under the direction of Professor Doug Wadden. The new design, with a prominent “W” logo in purple and gold, replaces the former UW specialty plate featuring the UW Husky logo. “The project gave the students a wonderful opportunity to contribute their creativity and design skills to a visible and important project, while interacting with members of the University staff, administration and campus community,” Wadden says.
For each purchase or renewal of a UW license plate, $28 will go to the UW General Scholarship Fund as a tax-deductible contribution in support of students at the University. Cost of new plates is $44.50 (plus standard annual licensing fees) and renewal is $30 (plus standard licensing fees).
“The new license plate is a fantastic (and tax-deductible) way to give a richly deserved boost to our outstanding students,” says Connie Kravas, vice president for development and alumni relations. “We here at the UW invite all Washington state residents to drive with Husky pride.” UW
To order a new UW license plate, simply complete a specialized license plate application, (available at any state vehicle licensing agent or online through the UW Foundation at www.uwlicenseplates.com) and submit to your licensing agent.
To receive UW gift credit for your tax-deductible contribution, mail a copy of your vehicle registration to UW Gift Processing, 1200 Fifth Avenue, Suite 500, Box 358240, Seattle, WA 98101-1116