| Alumni
Gift Provides Momentum to Kingsbury Hall Renovation Effort By Sarah Aldag March 13, 2003
John H. Smith, a 1950 graduate of the College of Engineering and
Physical Sciences, has made a $200,000 gift in support of the Kingsbury
Hall renovation project at the University of New Hampshire. The
gift is part of a $6 million private fundraising drive intended
to complement the $44 million committed by the state through the
initial stage of its KEEP-NH program, the plan to renovate the university
system's aging science, engineering and high-technology facilities.
Private funding will support the completion of the Kingsbury Hall
renovation package with enhancements to laboratories, classrooms,
library, and faculty and student workspaces. "We are truly grateful for this generous gift from one of
the university's most supportive alumni," President Ann Weaver
Hart says. "The university's future is dependent upon the quality
of its public-private partnerships, and Jack Smith's gift strengthens
our ability to provide an exemplary facility for New Hampshire's
only public engineering program. Our students and our state both
stand to benefit from the successful completion of this important
project." Smith, who received his degree in mechanical engineering, is a
resident of Scarborough, Maine. He began his career as a development
engineer, experimenting with ramjet and liquid propellant rocket
engines. He later became a chief engineer at a division of Gulf
and Western Corp. As his career evolved, he was the founder and
owner of Portland Valve Inc. -- a designer and manufacturer of valves
for nuclear submarines -- until it was sold in 1983. "My education at the University of New Hampshire paved the
way for a challenging and rewarding career," Smith says. "
It is a pleasure and an honor to be able give something back at
this time of my life. The College of Engineering and Physical Sciences
has always been known for the quality of its programs, the distinction
of its faculty, and the caliber of its research. I'm happy to contribute
to the revitalization of Kingsbury Hall and to play a part in providing
up-to-date facilities for future generations of engineering students."
"Jack Smith sets a fine example as a donor and a friend of
the university," says UNH Foundation President Young P. Dawkins
III. "Thanks to his ongoing belief in the University of New
Hampshire, generations of students will reap the rewards of a UNH
education," he says of Smith's previous gifts to the university,
which include a scholarship endowment for engineering students and
a charitable remainder trust naming UNH a beneficiary. "Jack is equally as generous with his time," Dawkins
says. "He also gives us the benefit of his experience as a
member of the President's Council Executive Committee and the newly
formed College of Engineering and Physical Sciences' Alumni Society."
"The renovation will transform Kingsbury Hall into a modern structure that reflects the evolving nature of engineering and the college's aspirations for excellence," says Arthur Greenberg, dean of the College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. Plans for the new facility include new student project spaces that promote project-oriented teaching, teaching labs that integrate lab and lecture elements, high-tech classrooms that are wired to access the Internet for high-speed research, and an expanded library that will serve as the state's library of engineering, computer science and mathematics. "This is a building where we will train the engineers of tomorrow -- and it will reflect this new way of doing business," Greenberg adds. The renovation is scheduled to begin later this year. |
