January 14, 2008
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Dear President’s Circle Member,  “Please make sure that Wayne Green understands that I am doing this primarily because of what he did for me.”The fact that professors emeriti continue to be very much a part of Knox College long after they retire from active teaching is one of the aspects of Knox that makes the College special. That was brought home to me again when I heard the request of Doug Bayer '66 on December 14, 2007. Doug asked me to communicate with Professor Green just after Doug and his wife, Maria, executed a gift agreement for a $1-million endowed chair in earth sciences at Knox. Professor Green was tickled to learn how his former student's generosity to Knox had been prompted by Professor Green's inspired and dedicated teaching 40 years before. Please join me in congratulating and thanking Professor Green for being the inspiration for this wonderful gift that will enable a new generation of faculty to touch the lives of a new generation of students in this new century. And special thanks to Maria and Doug!
115 East South Street Thanks to the initiative of trustee Bob Lindsay '73 and Business Advisory Council member Bob Bondi, the College has been able to purchase the building at 115 East South Street, immediately across the street from George Davis Hall, for 55 percent of its appraised value. The building has 5,700 square feet, 13 offices, and space for seminar and conference rooms. The College will use the additional space to solve existing space problems caused by increased enrollments. The trustees have offered the building as a naming opportunity for an interested donor for a $300,000 gift. This is a philanthropic bargain that I hope will be snapped up very soon. Please contact Beverly Holmes in Advancement to learn more about this special opportunity. Pete Hosutt Scholarship Shortly after Pete Hosutt, beloved member of the Class of 1955, passed away in January 2007, six of his classmates approached Advancement Vice President Beverly Holmes and said that they wanted to raise money for Knox to be dedicated to a use in Pete's name. Working with Beverly, they conceived The Rev. Pete Hosutt Endowed Scholarship Fund. The six classmates then made lead gifts, organized themselves, and started raising money. They didn't ask Beverly for training or talking points. They just started meeting with and calling their classmates. They described to their classmates a project for which they had a passion and to which they had each contributed. They then asked for money. In three months, they raised $200,000. The first Pete Hosutt Scholar has been selected, Lucas Street '08. As I saw what they did, I remembered that in "New College President's School" in 2002, someone in the class asked the president of Amherst, who was an instructor, about fundraising. "It's not that bad," he said. "The volunteers do most of the work, and I just show up once in a while." The rest of us who expected to spend half our time on fundraising, looked at the Amherst president in wonder. The Pete Hosutt Scholarship shows me what he was talking about. As more alumni volunteers engage in fundraising, as well as contribute to the College themselves, as you do, Knox truly will Chart a Course Toward Financial Impregnability. Please join me in thanking these classmates of Pete Hosutt for their generosity and leadership: Robert Burden, Paul Johnson, James Jones, Walter Larkin, Anthony "Tony" Liberta, and Logan "Bud" Wharton. Advancement & Admissions While most of us were enjoying the long Christmas and New Year's holiday, the Advancement staff was on the second floor of the Umbeck Science & Mathematics Center making year-end solicitation calls, recording gifts, and writing scores of thank-you notes and gift acknowledgments. They were hard at work New Year's Eve, and their hard work has paid off. As of December 31, 2007, the Knox Fund raised $1,415,694 -- that's 22 percent ahead of where the Knox Fund was for the first six months of the College's fiscal year at the end of December 2006. The College is also up 867 donors over last year at this time and has 25 percent more alumni donors. Congratulations to Beverly Holmes, vice president of Advancement, and her staff on yet another great year. And thanks to you -- members of the President's Circle -- for your leadership and generosity, especially the 80 new members. Knox would not continue to have such success without your support. Admission numbers continue to be strong. As of the close of business on Friday, January 11, 2008, the College had received 2,160 applications for admission, compared to 1,968 at the end of the first full week of January last year. After hosting two record-breaking open houses this fall, the Admission office prepares to welcome more than 200 prospective students and their families at the first of the winter open houses on January 21. Knox remains a hot school.
After Old Main's roof was damaged by a wind storm last August, Knox pursued various avenues to repair the damage. Engineering studies showed that replacing the roof was the most sensible option. The Board of Trustees authorized work to proceed on the Old Main roof replacement for a cost not to exceed $1.1 million. The new roof will be copper, which has an 80 year projected life, 50 years more than the least expensive roofing material, galvanized iron, which was only $75,000 less. P.J. Hoerr, which did the Hamblin Hall renovation, is the general contractor. A few interesting discoveries were made while workers were cleaning Old Main's attic in preparation for construction. They include copies of receipts for archery lessons from 1950 ($1.50) and a suitcase that has been held since 1966 for a Professor Guinle to return from France. The workers who are replacing the Old Main roof have made remarkable progress. There is reason to be optimistic that the work will be completed well in advance of the projected date of Commencement and within the $1.1 million estimate. Internationalism at Knox Eight faculty members -- David Amor, anthropology-sociology; Diana Beck, educational studies; Steve Cohn, economics; Michael Schneider, history; Penny Gold, history; Charles Schulz '72, physics; Robert Seibert '63, political science; and Shuyan Shipplett, modern languages -- recently returned from a nine-day trip to China over winter break. The trip was sponsored by the Center for Global Studies at Knox College, through a grant to the Center from the Caterpillar Foundation. Prior to the trip, the faculty members participated in a 10-week seminar and language instruction, led by Professor Shipplett, and designed proposals to incorporate their experiences in China into their future teaching or research. The faculty report wonderful, enriching experiences from their travel and also productive meetings at Fudan University in Shanghai and Beijing University about exchange programs with Knox. Their China trip will bring additional elements to already existing international education programs both on campus and abroad. The students have also returned to campus. As I look out the Old Main window where Abraham Lincoln "went through college" watching the students cross campus between classes, it is evident to me that Knox is back at its core work: teaching and learning. Thank you for your contributions that enable Knox College to fulfill this important obligation to our society. Sincerely,  Roger Taylor '63 President
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