Posted on Jun 23, 2006

Lawrence Hollander came to Union in 1986 as a visiting professor of electrical engineering and left as a dean and a true College friend.

Along the way, he distinguished himself as creator of the largest single scholarship fund of any living Union donor – the Lawrence J. Hollander Endowed Bicentennial Scholarship for engineering students.

“Establishing a scholarship was an easy decision,” he says. “Union College, with more than 200 years of history and 150 years of engineering, is where I want to be remembered. I believe in the idea of a private liberal arts college containing engineering curricula.”

A native of New York City, Hollander first set foot on Union's campus in spring 1971 while doing an accreditation visit as secretary of the New York State Education Department Board for Engineering and Land Surveying. In addition to his seven years with the state, he served as a dean at The Cooper Union and has taught at his alma mater, New York University (B.S.E.E., 1951; M.S.E.E., 1954).

“I came to Union College to teach electrical engineering and computer science, and three years later, I jumped in as dean. When I retired in 1993, the Trustees made me dean of engineering emeritus,” says Hollander, who gained a name for himself as an expert in electrical power during the famous Northeast blackout of 1965.

At Union, he is also known for the music prize that bears his name. Five years ago, when Hilary Tann, a close associate, asked him to consider supporting a Hollander Convocation Musician Prize, he was generous, once again, to the College that “is like a second home.” Each year, he looks forward to Convocation, to meet the student recipient. (Of his own musical interests, he says: “I've been toying with the acoustic guitar to keep my mind and fingers coordinated now that I'm in my 80th year.”)

In addition to supporting Union with scholarships, Hollander donates time and resources to many community groups – when he's not circumnavigating the globe, that is. Since retirement, he's walked with the penguins in Antarctica, sailed on the Yangtze River in China, gone river boating on the Rhine, a mere sampling of his peregrinations. Recently, he returned from sailing through the Panama Canal.

Luckily, he says, he's a more talented stock trader than musician.

“My daily trading on the stock market has provided funds for my travel, contributions to the Salvation Army and support of the Hollander Bicentennial Scholarship and the musician's prize.”

As Lisa A. DeMar '03's career takes off – she begins a job with Lockheed Martin this month, newly armed with an M.S. in electrical engineering from Virginia Tech – she's quick to put in a good word for her benefactor. Says the Lawrence J. Hollander Endowed Bicentennial Scholarship recipient: “The scholarship certainly was helpful financially and as a point of note on my resume. More than that, it was terrific to meet my scholarship donor. I was particularly pleased to discover that he was a former dean of engineering at Union with interests similar to my own.”

Posted on Jun 23, 2006

With three years still to go, the “You are Union” campaign is surging forward with a host of new donors and donations, a variety of exciting campus projects and generosity galore. By the start of the new year, the College had passed the midpoint of the $200 million fundraising goal.

To date, the effort has raised $106 million to support student scholarships, endowed faculty chairs, undergraduate research, Minervas and more, all of which will boost Union's excellence in this new century. As momentum continues to build, the Office of College Relations is hosting multi-city campaign festivities. Recently, 210 people crowded the New York City Yacht Club for an event hosted by Dr. Arnold Baskin'41 and his wife, Myrna.

“Our largest commitments come from alumni but we also have received support from parents, students, faculty, staff, corporations, foundations and individuals who are simply friends of the College,” says Thomas Gutenberger, vice president for College Relations. “It's going to take broad-based support to reach our goal, so every gift, no matter what the size, counts.”

For a look at campaign priorities, visit http://www.union.edu/youareunion/endowments

Posted on Jun 23, 2006

Robert Howe, Union's 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award winner, had the grades, the smarts and the desire – but not the means – to go to Union. Then Jonathan Pearson III '42, the College's director of admissions, “came traveling up the valley,” to talk to promising high school students in Little Falls, N.Y.

Howe was direct: “I said, ‘You can talk, but I can't afford it.”

Fortunately, he garnered enough in scholarships and grants from the College and other groups to make Union possible. Grateful for that support, Howe has been giving generously to Union since his freshman year – never missing a year.

More recently, he made the College both owner and beneficiary of a $1 million life insurance policy to endow a chair in developmental biology in honor of one of his mentors, Professor Raymond Rappaport.

Now a professor himself, teaching medicine at the University of Minnesota, Howe was a dual biology and chemistry major who thrived on the close-knit relationships he formed in Union's science department.

He was inspired by the faculty, particularly Rappaport and Francis Lambert in biology and Egbert Bacon and the late Howard Sheffer in chemistry. It was Rappaport who encouraged him to attend the Mt. Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Salisbury Cove, Maine, where Howe worked for several summers with cutting-edge biologists such as Fred Berglund from the renowned Karolinska Institute in Sweden, one of Europe's largest medical universities.

At Union, Howe's passion for science, medicine and research grew so strong he applied to medical school after only three years.

“Fortunately, I didn't get in,” he said. “I came back to Union, and it was the best year of my intellectual life. I had only one required course, so I took music, art, history of modern warfare with Professor Bill Dody – just stuff. I read a novel a week. Senior year was an enriching, maturing experience. Without it, I probably would have been a nerd. Maybe I still am, but I would have been a narrower nerd.”

Howe graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1962 and worked for the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and the U.S. Public Health Service before joining the Minnesota faculty in 1970. In addition to teaching, he is a hematologist who currently is studying etiology and treatment of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS).

The former Mohawk Valley student returns to the Union campus regularly.

“I try to go to Homecoming every year,” he said. Next to receiving his alumni award at last year's Homecoming, “the only greater honor was receiving my degree from Union.”

A volunteer's world: Here's Howe he does it

Robert Howe '58 loves giving his time and energy to Union.

He is chairman of the Ramée Circle Society, president of the Minneapolis Alumni Club, a member of the Alumni Physicians Advisory Board and an Annual Fund volunteer.

He also is a former Terrace Council Chair and class representative to the Alumni Council, and, eager to spread the Union word, he has helped Admissions in recruiting students from his home state.

At ReUnion '98, his 40th class year, Howe and his wife, Sondra, a musician and piano educator, captivated audiences with their lecture-demonstration, “Music, Medicine and Mozart.” The program was so successful the Howes reprised it at other alumni gatherings.

Posted on Jun 23, 2006

Reidence to be a loving tribute to Roland V. Fitzroy Jr. '43 (1922-2004)

The Deloye-Fitzroy House celebrates two “unions”: the College itself, where the late Roland V. Fitzroy Jr. '43, known for his work with the Manhattan Project, earned his B.S. in electrical engineering; and the union of Fitzroy and the former Nancy DeLoye, his soulmate in marriage, career and everything else.

“Roland loved Union. It's a very civilized school, broader than engineering, with arts and theater… so lovely, really. Roland always spoke so happily about his days in South College. I thought, why not name a residence for him?” says Nancy DeLoye Fitzroy, speaking about her intention for Union.

The residence, recently renovated, is located on Seward Place. It follows an earlier gift to the College by the Fitzroys, the Roland V. and Nancy Fitzroy Scholarship for talented electrical engineering students.

Nancy Fitzroy was an RPI student with an interest in nuclear energy when she met her husband-to-be in 1947. “The more I saw of him, the more I realized how simpático we were, like two peas in a pod,” she recalls.

The Fitzroys, both from Massachusetts, tied the knot in 1951 and eventually settled in Niskayuna. Nancy worked at the Research and Development Center; Roland, at the Hermes (Rocket) Project and Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory. They remained companions (“we were sailors, skiers and flyers together”) and intellectual partners until he passed away in fall 2004.

“We both agreed that Roland got a very good education at Union,” Nancy says. “In South College, there were four rooms to a floor, and the four guys – he and Louis Loeb, Dick Watanabe and Richard Leuke – stayed in close touch all their lives. Roland always spoke of Hale House, of the waiters in tuxedos and white gloves. Life was very genteel.”

Deloye & Fitzroy: A perfect pair

As dynamic as Nancy DeLoye-Fitzroy and her husband, the late Roland V. Fitzroy Jr. '43, were as a twosome, each attained a dazzling array of individual accomplishments.

The boy from Union: Roland's 41-year career with General Electric Company included work with GE's Project Hermes Guided Missile Division (1946-1956), Rocket Engine Department (1956-60) and Control Drive Mechanisms group at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory (KAPL), where he teamed in the design and development of nuclear reactor operating components for Navy nuclear-powered submarines. He was awarded several patents for his work, including the design of one of the nation's first inertial guidance systems for guided missiles. He retired in 1987 as senior engineer at KAPL.

From 1943-46, he was with the U.S. Army during World War II and was selected for top-secret technical roles with the Manhattan Engineer District. “He was only 21 when they tapped him for the atom bomb project, separating U235 from U238. Then he was an agent in ‘deep cover,'” Nancy notes.

Roland received a Presidential Unit Citation for his work with scientists at the University of California at Berkeley on the separation process, which yielded uranium-enriched U-235 for use in the A-bomb. His espionage assignments with the Army Counter Intelligence Corps, since declassified, are the basis of film interviews the Veteran's Administration recently conducted for historical documentaries.

Roland Fitzroy was an Avid Star Boat sailor and instrument-rated pilot as well as a skier and gardener. He stayed connected to Union as a class secretary/treasurer, associate agent and Ramée Circle member.

The girl from RPI: After graduating from RPI (bachelor of chemical engineering, 1949; inducted into the Hall of Fame, 1999), Nancy DeLoye joined KAPL. She was manager of energy and environmental programs in GE's turbine marketing and projects division. In 1986, she became the first female president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). She also was elected an honorary fellow of Britain's Institute of Mechanical Engineers, one of two women to hold that rank and the only American woman. For 20 years, she has been a member of the Whirly-Girls, an international group of helicopter pilots dedicated to advancing women in aviation.

Posted on Jun 23, 2006

It seems only fitting that 1912 was a leap year.

That's the year the Union Fund was created, representing a leap of faith in the College's supporters and their willingness to generously support Union's people, programs and special campus places.

Now in its 94^th year, the Union Fund reigns as the oldest continuously operating annual fund in the country.

Consider: Each year, thousands of alumni, parents, students, employees, local businesses and friends of Union College show their support by making gifts to The Union Fund.

The Fund allows even those who aren't on campus every day to be involved, in ways that really count, throughout the year. In fact, the name was changed from Annual Fund to Union Fund some years ago precisely to reflect that giving occurs all year long.

For the most part, Union Fund gifts are “unrestricted.” They're used to support the College's highest priorities and overall goals and to cover the most pressing operating budget needs.

But it's also possible to make a “restricted” gift toward a particular program, event or department you remember fondly, have ties to or just plain love (there's a lot of that at Union).

“The Fund is the foundation for everything happening at Union today. That includes new programs as well as faculty, campus speakers, scholarships, lab equipment and lawn care,” notes Gail Dexter, director of Annual Giving. “Every donation, big and small, makes an immediate and lasting impact.”  

This year, the College is seeking $4.3 million in gifts to continue to make Union even stronger than it already is.

“We hope to count as many people as possible in this year's donor roll,” Dexter says. “While we always appreciate our donors' generosity, now is an especially good time to give because it's a great way to welcome our new president.”

And speaking of leaps in time, the end to this year's Union Fund is rapidly approaching. June 30 is just days away.

So don't delay. Click here to make a gift on our secure server. Or visit https://www.union.edu/Parents