Sep/Oct 2015
News from Yale: “President Peter Salovey has announced a $150 million pathbreaking gift by Blackstone founder Stephen A. Schwarzman to create a world-class, state-of-the-art campus center by renovating the historic Commons and Memorial Hall. Schwarzman’s gift, the second-largest single donation in Yale’s history, will establish a university-wide center that serves as a campus educational, social, and cultural hub, and enables virtual engagement with global audiences.
“The Schwarzman Center will transform the historic Commons and three floors of the adjacent Memorial Hall, both built at the university’s bicentennial in 1901. It will be far more than a restoration. The 88,300-square-foot complex at the center of the campus will be reimagined to become the central hub of student life by creating versatile performance, exhibition, meeting, dining, and gathering spaces. The Schwarzman Center will also present performances and cultural events in the historic Woolsey Hall, which is another of the Carrère and Hastings–designed buildings built to mark Yale’s bicentennial in 1901.
“‘My hope is that the Schwarzman Center will serve as the crossroads for the campus, but also place Yale at the crossroads of the world,’ said Schwarzman. ‘The education I received at Yale changed the course of my life. It is now a pleasure to give back by creating something on campus that will be transformational for all members of the Yale community. Future generations will utilize the Schwarzman Center in innumerable new ways and, in so doing, keep the Yale experience at the cutting edge.’ According toBloomberg Business, Steve’s first choice for college was Harvard. He was rejected. A few years ago, the former admissions dean at Harvard wrote to him: ‘I guess we got that one wrong.’”
More welcome philanthropy: “The Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History has received a $4 million gift from Carbonite founder and executive chair David Friend to renovate the museum’s auditorium into a state-of-the-art mineral and gem gallery and multipurpose programming space. Friend will also establish an endowment to support the displays and programming within the space. The project’s completion is timed to coincide with the Peabody’s 150th anniversary in 2016. ‘We are very grateful for the incredible generosity of David Friend,’ says David Skelly, director of the Yale Peabody Museum. ‘This renovation project will reimagine our auditorium as both an exhibit space and a room in which groups can gather together for teaching and learning. The remarkable specimens will complement our displays in the adjacent Hall of Minerals, Earth, and Space, and advance the museum’s mission to communicate understanding of Earth history to a wide audience.’ The new space will be named David Friend Hall. ‘I envision a spectacular space focused on the beauty and wonder of nature that features some of the world’s most beautiful and awe-inspiring minerals,’ says Friend. ‘It will possess the visual power to inspire among visitors a new level of interest in Earth science. Anchoring the space will be monumental crystals formed before the first dinosaurs walked the earth’ in recognition of the Peabody’s renowned paleontology collection, he adds.
“The mineral and gem gallery will provide a distinctive venue for the Peabody’s more than 300 programs a year, including lectures, classes, dinners, and special events. In addition to accommodating public programming, the new hall will enhance the teaching mission of the Peabody by drawing Yale students into the museum for classes and activities, a key priority for the institution, according to Skelly.”
Well done, Steve and Friendly!
Ken Brown writes: “I attended the Yale Alumni in Energy Conference on the West Campus on April 10. Our class was well represented. Howie Newman, Tom Emmons, and Skip Hobbs were there. Howie spoke on the turmoil in the shale oil patch over the dramatic drop in oil prices. During the weekend of May 2, Skip and Breeze Hobbs hosted Ann and me at their log cabin in the woods in Sheffield, Massachusetts. Rob and Cheryl Kubach came over to join us for dinner that Saturday night. We enjoyed catching up.”
“I’ve been given benefits from the day I was born. A loving family. A great education. So I see it as an obligation, as a Christian and as a human being, to help.”— Tom Catena, Catholic missionary and only permanent doctor in the Nuba mountains (500,000-plus people), whose hospital and surrounding civilians are regularly bombed by the South Sudanese air force. (New York Times, 6/28/2015)