When The Campaign for Delaware, the University of Delaware’s first comprehensive capital fund-raising effort, kicked off on Oct. 2, 1998, at the Bob Carpenter Sports/Convocation Center, its goal was to raise $225 million over the next five years.

The Campaign Gala at the Bob on Saturday evening, May 7, brought together members of the Delaware Diamonds and Legacy societies to officially celebrate the fund-raising effort.

UD Board of Trustees Chairman Howard E. Cosgrove opened his remarks by congratulating the more than 400 UD benefactors at the gala on the success of The Campaign for Delaware.

“Our initial goal was set at $225 million, an ambitious goal for a University that had not previously embarked on
a major comprehensive fund-raising effort,” Cosgrove said. “I’m extremely happy to report that goal has been exceeded by $200 million, with gifts and pledges now at the $425 million level! The response from you, our alumni and friends, has been significant and heartfelt.”

Cosgrove also recognized the efforts of UD President David P. Roselle and his wife, Louise, whom he described as being “a couple who provide an unbeatable team of insight, intelligence, thoughtfulness and graciousness.”

After a standing ovation for President and Mrs. Roselle, Cosgrove also cited the contributions to The Campaign’s success by the Office of Development, under the leadership of Robert R. Davis, as well as the efforts of the Office of Public Relations, directed by Mary Hempel.

Cosgrove praised the leadership and the vision of Roselle in conducting a campaign that far exceeded its original goal.

“It has been said that leadership is the ability of a single individual through his or her actions to motivate us toward the higher levels of achievement,” Cosgrove said. “Tonight, I would like to present to you the leader who has brought his vision of this great institution to a higher level of achievement, David Roselle, president of the University of Delaware.”

Resounding success

In expressing his gratitude for UD’s many generous friends, many of whom were present at the gala, Roselle said that “remarkable” seemed an inadequate word to describe the gifts and pledges of more than $425 million.

“Thank you, Howard, for detailing the fact that we are much better at raising money, than we are at prediction,” Roselle said.

Roselle noted that many of the evening’s guests also attended the kick-off celebration, when The Campaign for Delaware began with the announcement that $67 million had been collected toward the original goal of $225 million.

“It seemed like a daunting challenge then, but I recall the room was filled with excitement, energy and hope,” Roselle said. “Our expectations were high—and it turns out well-justified. Your interest, your support and your gifts, have been the key to our success.”

Roselle also thanked members of the Board of Trustees, as well as the members of the Delaware Diamonds and Legacy societies, and he especially noted employee donors in those societies, including UD faculty, staff and retirees.

He also announced the creation of two new gift societies:

• The Pillar Society, which recognizes donors whose cumulative lifetime giving to UD is in excess of $100,000; and

• The Signers Society, which recognizes benefactors whose lifetime gifts exceed $250,000 and which honors the signers of the Declaration of Independence who were members of the original 1743 class of Rev. Francis Alison’s New London Academy to which UD traces it roots.

Before dinner, a video, created by Information Technologies—University Media Services, was screened featuring the interaction between faculty mentoring and student discovery. Throughout the evening, a slide show featuring UD faculty whose recognition as named professors was made possible by the success of The Campaign for Delaware, also was presented. The slide show also featured major campus construction projects that benefited from The Campaign for Delaware, including the new Center for the Arts and the Laird Campus residence halls project both now under construction, as well as UD’s new research vessel scheduled to arrive this fall.

After the video and slide show presentations, Roselle thanked UD friends and alumni now living in every state and many foreign countries.

In recalling the initial planning for The Campaign for Delaware, Roselle drew upon the words of President Woodrow Wilson, who said, “We grow great by dreams.”

“Our commitment when we announced The Campaign for Delaware was fueled by a dream of what this University could be. I told you then that we had put our house in order, that the University was taking care of business and that we were ready to position the University for greater pre-eminence in the 21st Century,” Roselle said. “It was my dream that The Campaign for Delaware would allow us to do that. I’m here tonight to tell you that the University’s house has been transformed!”

Evidence of this transformation, Roselle said, can be seen in the increase in the number of named professors from 21 in 1998 to 105 now because of the Campaign.

Roselle also called attention to many campus building projects made possible by the Campaign, including the Center for the Arts.

“This project, which is now under construction next to the Amy E. du Pont Music Building, will house performance and rehearsal space for both the music department and the Professional Theatre Training Program, as well as a number of individual practice rooms, offices and even a rehearsal room big enough for the entire [350-member] UD Marching Band,” Roselle said.

In thanking the guests for their continuing support of UD and its mission, Roselle shared some stories of individual donors and their special gifts, including outstanding individual contributions:

• Gore Hall, a gift of the Gore family that stands at the heart of The Green, built with only one request from the family—have the architect design the building to look as though it had always been there;
  
  
• The Melva Guthrie Atrium in Morris Library, named after the benefactor who made a $6 million bequest and wanted to be remembered for ‘her kindness’;
  
  
• Gifts for the Louis Redding Chair in Law and Public Policy, which included contributions of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters from children at the Louis Redding Middle School;
  
  
• Don Puglisi, who was selected for a named professorship in the Lerner College of Business and Economics thanks to a generous gift from MBNA America and who, in turn, applied the accompanying stipend to a scholarship memorializing his father;
  
  
• Wilhelmina Press Thompson, a member of the Class of 1943 and former alumni office employee, who left a bequest of $4.1 million that will be used toward construction of the Center for the Arts. Mrs. Thompson wrote on her 50th reunion reservation form in 1993, “I used to work in the Alumni Office many years ago, and worked with many old coots at annual spring reunions. Now, I find I am one”;
  
  
• Ann Nields Garstin, who in 1929 set sail for France with the Junior Year Abroad Progam, later writing that the experience changed her life. She left a bequest in excess of $10 million, a portion of which now funds study-abroad scholarships; and
  
  
• Chaplin Tyler, the centenarian who Gentlemen’s Quarterly featured as a man who has aged with style and grace, shown in the magazine modeling his favorite multicolored sweater, one so admired by the women at Cokesbury Village retirement community that he dubbed it “my pickup sweater.”

“These are just of few of the many stories that could be told,” Roselle said. “Thank you for coming this evening, and thank you for your continuing commitment. Your friendship and support of the University of Delaware are deeply appreciated and gratefully accepted.”

The success of The Campaign for Delaware has attracted attention well beyond the campus, too. In a recent issue of University Business magazine, an article advised schools contemplating a capital campaign to look to UD “for pointers.”

The Campaign for Delaware gala, which began with an invocation by Rev. Michael Szupper, director of the St. Thomas More Oratory at UD, concluded with a benediction by Laura Lee Wilson, who retired as director and campus pastor of the Wesley Foundation Campus Ministry at UD.

Special entertainment during the evening included performances by the University of Delaware Marching Band, under the direction of Heidi Sarver, associate professor of music; the University of Delaware Chorale, under the direction of Paul Head, associate professor of music; and violinist Xiang Gao, associate professor of music, performing on UD’s Ceruti violin and accompanied by pianist Julie Nishimura.

For the evening, The Bob itself was dressed to the nines. A recreation of the brick Diamond Walkway at Old College greeted guests in the lobby, which also sported cherry trees, hydrangeas, rhododendrons and azaleas. The Acierno Arena was draped in colorful banners bearing the University’s logo and the words The Campaign for Delaware, and cut roses in shades of pink and rose adorned the tables.

—Jerry Rhodes, AS ’04