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P.A. Board plans busy year	Alumni answer call	Leadership gifts support Cornerstone Campaign	Gift grows into lasting tribute

P.A. Board plans busy year

The President's Associates Board of Directors celebrates 20 years of fund raising for NMSU this year. The board's volunteers have raised more than $2 million to fund the President's Associates scholarship program. Included in that total are 23 named P.A. scholarship endowments with a combined principal value of more than $1 million.

The program attracts outstanding high school seniors from throughout New Mexico. About 350 students have been awarded the scholarships, and 210 graduated as P.A. Scholars with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.5 or higher. Currently, NMSU has about 50 P.A. scholars, who receive more than $130,000 worth of support a year. All of the money comes from private individuals and businesses.

Harry M. Grandon II of Las Cruces, manager of the Mesilla Valley Mall, chairs the 1997-98 board. Working with him as co-chair of the membership drive is Renai Fletcher. Other board members are Sue Ackleson, Joe Behnke, Ruth Benjamins, Joe Bullock, Fran Cleary, Jan Firkins, Tom Gale, Mary J. Hurley, Connie Moss, John A. Papen III, Ruth Scanlon-Christopher, Sharron Stuart, Charles Tharp and David Wilson. Anna Stack, immediate past chair, serves this year in an ex-officio capacity.

Individuals and businesses who make annual gifts of $1,000 or more to any NMSU program are recognized as President's Associates. Last year, nearly 500 donors qualified for this recognition, with 75 earmarking all or a portion of their gifts to the P.A. scholarship program. The goal this year is $85,000 designated for such scholarships.

The board seeks other donors to support the scholarship program, which is the top university-wide academic excellence award. Gifts of any amount can be designated for P.A. scholarships.

Leadership gifts support Cornerstone Campaign

The Cornerstone Campaign for Excellence, designed to raise funds for student support, faculty development, program enrichment and remodeling of the Trost-designed YMCA Building, now has more than $4 million in commitments toward a goal of $9.7 million to be raised by January 2000. Among the contributions so far are two estate gifts:

Anna H. Gardiner - $620,000

A gift from the estate of Anna H. Gardiner, the late widow of George W. Gardiner, first head of the physics department and founder of the Physical Science Laboratory, establishes a $350,000 endowed professorship in his name for the physics department and a $270,000 endowment in her name for the University Library. Mrs. Gardiner, who died in 1996, taught mathematics and headed PSL's Ballistic Data Reduction section.

David Barham - $520,000

NMSU also received a major gift from the estate of honorary alumnus David Barham, founder of Hot Dog on a Stick. The gift of $520,000, to be distributed over the next two years, will enable the College of Business Administration and Economics to establish an entrepreneurship center.

Danny Arnold, dean of the college, said the center will enhance NMSU's outreach mission. He noted that in New Mexico, 95 percent of the people working in the private sector are employed in small businesses. "As our center develops, we will be able to provide support in many ways for entrepreneurial activities across the state," he said.

David's brother, Hugh Barham, is a 1942 alumnus with a degree in business administration.

NMSU Foundation Board pledges $100,000

Ben Montoya, chairman of the Cornerstone Campaign, challenged the NMSU Foundation Board at its spring meeting to make a personal commitment of time and money to the success of this campaign. He stressed that the campaign will contribute to the success students enjoy during and after their years at NMSU and will contribute to their interest in giving back to the university in years to come.

To that end, members of the board pledged a combined commitment of $100,000 over the next three years toward remodeling the YMCA building. To date, more than $200,000 has been designated for this project.

The university also has received a $5,000 grant from the Johanna Favrot Fund for Historic Preservation for a series of programs and an exhibit about the work of architect Henry C. Trost. The exhibit opens Sept. 12 and continues for a year at the University Museum in Kent Hall. It is designed to raise public consciousness about the significance of NMSU's architectural heritage and the YMCA building's place in that heritage. Among the items on display will be copies of the original campus masterplan, Trost's original drawings and models of Trost buildings .

Working with University Communications and Agricultural Communications, the foundation has produced a seven-minute video to help tell the story of the Cornerstone Campaign. Copies of the video and more information on the campaign are available through the NMSU Office of University Advancement, P.O. Box 3590, Las Cruces, N.M. 88003-3590.

Endowment assists graduate students

An endowment created in the memory of Barry Neil Rappaport, '88, '89, '94, will support scholarships to graduate students in astronomy and electrical engineering. The first scholarship was awarded to a graduate student in astronomy.

Jay Jordan, head of the NMSU electrical engineering department, called his former student and colleague "a very good engineer" with a unique background in astronomy and human genome research. "We were very proud of him."

Rappaport died suddenly of an aortic aneurism on July 31, 1996. He was three days short of his 36th birthday.

"He was a loveable sort, a creative thinker and a kind person," said NMSU astronomy professor Reta Beebe. "His inclination was to help you do things."

A New Jersey native, Rappaport moved to Las Cruces in 1986 to pursue a master's degree in astronomy at NMSU. In 1987, he published a two-volume star atlas mapping 330,000 stars and 10,000 galaxies, followed by a Field Guide to Uranometria 2000.0. After receiving the master's in 1988, he began working toward another master's in electrical engineering and earned that degree a year later. In 1994, he earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering, also from NMSU.

"He was intellectually curious, and he loved learning," said his mother, Jean Rappaport. "He was eclectic, a true Renaissance man. He would have wanted us to support students."

The Dr. Barry Neil Rappaport Endowed Memorial Scholarship Fund was arranged by his parents, Walter and Jean Rappaport, his sister, Amy, and many friends. To contribute to the endowment, contact Ronald R. Jordan, J.D., Assistant Vice President, NMSU University Development, P.O. Box 3590, Las Cruces, N.M. 88003-3590, or call (505) 646-1106.

Gift grows into lasting tribute

Bonnie Lowenstein loved flowers. Wherever she lived, her flower gardens inspired all who visited. Now, her passion for horticulture endures in a scholarship endowed by her husband Bernard at the College of Agriculture and Home Economics.

Upon her death in 1992, the New Mexico Garden Clubs offered NMSU a one-time $500 scholarship to honor her years of service to that organization.

Lowenstein was so pleased with this thoughtful gesture that he decided to establish the Bonnie Lowenstein Endowed Memorial Scholarship. Yearly contributions from the physician have brought the endowment to $30,000. "I consider this scholarship a wonderful way to commemorate the work she started," Lowenstein said.

Mrs. Lowenstein traveled the country as a flower show judge and was a volunteer at the Albuquerque botanical gardens. Her husband served as a physician with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and other federal agencies. In April, the agriculture college inducted Dr. Lowenstein into the Sam Steel Society, recognizing his generosity to the college.