A List
6/11/07

MAURER FAMILY FOUNDATION AWARDS $1.5 MILLION TO SLU

CANTON - The Maurer Family Foundation has awarded a grant of $1.5 million to St. Lawrence University, to establish a professorship in the communication arts.

In recognition, the position will be titled the Maurer Professorship of Speech and Rhetoric.

Several members of the Maurer family are graduates of St. Lawrence: Gilbert C. Maurer '50, Palm Beach, Florida; Christopher C. '74 and Holly Wright Maurer '75, and their son, Paul C. Maurer '03, all of Charlotte, North Carolina; Jonathan G. Maurer '81, Pelham, New York; and Meredith Maurer Hutchison '81, Westport, Connecticut. All serve as directors of the Maurer Family Foundation.

Previous grants to the University from the Maurer Family Foundation supported the Maurer Family Student Music Production Series and the Maurer Family Studio for printmaking, in the Noble Center.

Gilbert Maurer, chairman of the Maurer Family Foundation, said, "It is a privilege to support President Sullivan, Dean Lehr and the faculty as they integrate into St. Lawrence's academic curriculum the historic discipline of speech and rhetoric. Their important initiative marks a significant milestone in distinguishing the unique values of a St. Lawrence education. Our most articulate citizens, the most effective leaders in education, the sciences, business and the arts, organize their arguments and present them persuasively. The Maurer family, through its Maurer Family Foundation, has enthusiastically endowed the Maurer Professorship in Speech and Rhetoric in the conviction that demonstrable skill in speech and rhetoric provides a substantial advantage to the St. Lawrence graduate in whatever life work he or she chooses to pursue."

University President Daniel F. Sullivan said, "We have long wanted to be able to address enhancing students' speech and rhetoric skills all across the curriculum in the way we currently do for writing. This grant from the Maurer Family Foundation will be transforming in this critically important area of liberal education. We are deeply, deeply grateful."

The Maurer Family Foundation was founded in 1995 by Ann and Gilbert Maurer to support the arts in America. Through its charitable gifts, the Maurer Family Foundation aims to provide financial assistance to those organizations and institutions whose goal is to enrich their communities and the lives of their patrons through programs of cultural value.

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More information: Performance and Communication Arts at St. Lawrence

Arts at St. Lawrence