Marquette 's Largest College Re-named in Donor's
Honor
Released: Oct 27, 2004
Marquette University is proud to announce a news series of awards (the Way
Klingler Faculty Development Program) to advance the research
and scholarship of its faculty. In honor of Helen Way Klingler,
whose $18 million donation announced in May made the program possible,
Marquette has also announced that it has renamed the College of
Arts and Sciences, home to the largest number of faculty, in her
honor.
"Helen Klingler was a wonderful human being and an exceptional
friend to this university," President Robert Wild, S.J.,
said. "Her amazing gift will provide unprecedented opportunities
for our faculty. There was never a question of whether we would
honor Helen's immense generosity-it was just a matter of how.
By naming our College of Arts and Sciences in her honor, we ensure
that Helen Klingler and her dedication to Marquette will be held
in grateful remembrance by our university community present and
future."
Starting in the 2005-06 academic year, the development program
will make awards available across campus to advance research of
senior faculty and to support promising younger faculty in critical
stages of their careers.
"Our faculty have advanced Marquette as a research institution
despite limitations in resources,” said Provost Madeline Wake.
“The Way Klingler Development Program will function both as investment
and reward for outstanding achievement. I expect significant outcomes.”
The development program is made possible though an $18 million
gift from the estate of Helen Way Klingler, a resident of Shorewood,
who passed away in January at the age of 101. Since 1979, Klingler
anonymously donated more than $15 million to Marquette, most of
which helped fund the university's Campus Circle Neighborhood
Revitalization program in the 1990s as well as the construction
of the John P. Raynor, S.J., Library. With her final gift, Klingler
is the university's all-time largest individual donor at $33 million.
The daughter of longtime Wisconsin Electric CEO Sylvester B.
Way, Klingler had no formal connection to Marquette. However,
she became very close to former President John Raynor, S.J., after
a chance meeting late in her life and converted to Catholicism
at the St. Joan of Arc Chapel in 1993. She received an honorary
doctor of laws degree from Marquette the same year and at the
ceremony was described as, “Quiet and unassuming…altruistic and
compassionate…possessing a transcendent commitment to all that
is best in society…demonstrating an active love for her neighbor.”
"As a college, we are privileged to be named the Helen Way
Klingler College of Arts and Sciences,” said Dr. Michael McKinney,
dean of the college. “Mrs. Klingler's gift, in supporting scholarly
research, rightly honors our faculty who are highly productive
scholars. Our Arts and Science faculty, at the core of Jesuit
education, epitomize the teacher/scholar model and are truly fulfilling
the mission of the university. We are pleased to reflect and memorialize
Mrs. Klingler's ideals.”
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