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A List
8/21/06
FORMER SLU TRUSTEE GIVES $3.4 MILLION FOR ARTS FACILITIES
CANTON - Trustee Emeritus Richard F. Brush has pledged $3.4 million to St. Lawrence
University, with $400,000 going towards arts facilities improvements now under way on
campus and $3 million for future renovation of arts facilities.
Arts facilities at St. Lawrence, in the Noble Center, have undergone two phases of
renovation in recent years. The $3 million gift from Brush is for Phase Three, and
beyond, and will launch fund-raising efforts for those projects, still to be planned.
Phase One, completed early in 2005, included renovations to a fine arts studio,
printmaking studio, papermaking studio, movement studio, rehearsal/performance studio,
and, on the lower level, a music rehearsal and performance studio. Phase Two renovations
began in May of 2006, with completion planned for use in the spring semester of 2007.
They will include the Newell Center for Arts Technology, a new photography studio/lab
and accessibility improvements to extend use of the building.
President Daniel F. Sullivan stated, "There is no one better at strategic philanthropy
in the arts than Dick Brush. He combines a fundamental grasp of what excellence is in
the making of art with the deepest of commitments to his alma mater and to our ambition
to continue to strengthen the arts here. His impact on the arts at St. Lawrence has
been and will be enormous. Our multiphase arts facilities investment, along with a
concurrent investment in the growth of the faculty teaching in the arts disciplines,
has contributed to our recent success in attracting those students best equipped to
participate fully in the rich academic program we offer. More than anyone, Dick has
helped make all of this happen."
A 1952 graduate of St. Lawrence, Brush, of Fairport, New York, is among the most generous
donors in the University's history. Many of his gifts have been directed towards arts
facilities and programming, and the acquisition of art for the University's permanent
collection. St. Lawrence's art exhibition space, the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery,
is named in recognition of his generosity.
Brush stated, "I first began collecting art when I was a student at St. Lawrence. I'd
saved enough to travel abroad and bought an etching in Israel that's still with me.
Art brings me great joy, and I want to share that joy with today's students. Giving
to St. Lawrence is a Brush family tradition. Others in my family have inspired me, and
I'm pleased to make a gift in hopes that others might be inspired as well."
Brush is chairman emeritus of his family's business, the Sentry Group in Rochester,
which manufactures fire-resistant safes, boxes, chests and files.
As an undergraduate at St. Lawrence, he was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon
fraternity, the Interfraternity Council, the student organization and the men's
leadership honorary, and he worked on the student radio station, newspaper and
yearbook.
Brush served as a member of St. Lawrence's Alumni Executive Council, and was
named an Alumni Trustee in 1990. He was elected a term Trustee in 1996, and
elected Trustee Emeritus in 2002. Active as a volunteer in fund-raising, career
advisement and alumni activities, St. Lawrence awarded Brush the Alumni Citation
in 1980.
Brush has been very active in the Rochester area and has been involved with a
number of organizations in the community, including the public radio/television station
WXXI, the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery, the Rochester Area Foundation, the Rochester
United Way, Community Health Network, Alfred University the Frederick Douglass Community
Development Corporation, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Literacy Volunteers of
America, the Rochester Museum and Science Center, the Landmark Society of Rochester
and the First Universalist Church in Rochester.
He is a member of a family with long and historic service to the University.
His parents both graduated from St. Lawrence, John D. Brush Sr. in 1922 and Edna
Jeanne Brush in 1924. John D. Brush Sr. served as a trustee, as did his sons
John D. "Jack" Brush Jr. '50, who passed away in February of 2006, and Richard
F. Brush '52. Jack Brush's son, James Brush '77, is currently a member of the
University's Board of Trustees. The Edna Jeanne Brush '24 Alumni House,
on University Avenue, is named in honor of Richard F. Brush's mother.
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More information: Arts at St. Lawrence
The Brush Family
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