Gift to endow faculty positions builds a stronger future

Judging from 10,000 years of geological history, the Pacific Northwest is due, or past due, for a major earthquake and tsunami — a massive event on par with the quakes that devastated parts of Chile and Haiti in 2010.

We aren't ready — but OSU engineers and scientists are leading efforts to help us prepare.

And what we develop here will be applied to vulnerable communities around the world.

That message resonated strongly with Lee '63 and Connie Howard Kearney '65 as they've interacted with professors in the College of Engineering. Two of OSU's most dedicated volunteer leaders and philanthropists, the Kearneys live in Vancouver, Wash., and they know this kind of natural disaster could affect them and their loved ones in a very direct way.

It's an exaggeration to say that what they've heard has left the Kearneys shaken — although Connie has made a point of gathering the emergency supplies recommended for all households in case of an earthquake.

Yet their engagement with this issue reinforced the couple's interest in supporting OSU faculty.

This summer, the Kearneys decided to create two faculty endowments in the College of Engineering. Their $2.5 million commitment is the first gift which qualifies for a new matching program designed to increase private investment in OSU faculty.

OSU's innovative Provost’s Faculty Match Program aims to build endowments for faculty positions that help expand OSU's international leadership in programs that advance the science of sustainable Earth ecosystems, improve human health and wellness, and promote economic growth and social progress. Funded by the OSU Provost's Office at $1 million per year for five years, the program has the potential to leverage more than $20 million in private support.

In an endowed fund, the principal gift is invested, producing a steady, reliable flow of expendable funds in perpetuity.

"The Provost's Match was an attractive encouragement for us to make a gift for a faculty endowment, because it immediately provides the college with funds that are almost equal to what will be generated by the gift itself," Lee Kearney said. "People often think of providing for an endowment in a bequest. The Provost's Match makes it a lot more interesting to do right now."

Faculty are the drivers behind OSU's educational and research programs, said provost and executive vice president Sabah Randhawa, and endowed positions are the most effective way to recruit, and retain, those leaders. "The Provost's Faculty Match Program and the donors who participate in it will allow us to build a faculty that will advance the university's areas of distinction, provide high quality education to a growing and diverse student body, and enable us to make progress toward our vision of becoming a Top-10 Land Grant university," he said.

One of the areas for which OSU is becoming increasingly known worldwide relates to earthquakes and tsunamis.

The Kearneys' gift will support faculty in the School of Civil and Construction Engineering, which is headed by Scott Ashford '83, an expert in earthquake and coastal engineering. In March he joined a 30-member scientific team that traveled to Chile to study the effects of the 8.8 earthquake experienced there. The quake originated in an offshore fault similar to the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which stretches from northern California to Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

"When you look at what we would face in recovering from a similar catastrophic event, it's clear that we've got a lot of work to do — and the university is uniquely positioned to lead the way. We can make things happen," Lee Kearney said.

Like Lee, Connie Kearney is deeply impressed by the caliber of research being done by OSU faculty. "We have an incredible group of faculty at Oregon State who are passionate about their work," she says. "Their research is important, not only for our region but for the world."

In addition to other gifts to OSU, the Kearneys provided more than $4 million to help renovate the 1898 engineering building that has been renamed Kearney Hall in their honor. Lee, a former director and division manager of Peter Kiewit Sons' Co., serves on OSU's Campaign Steering Committee. Connie, a member of the OSU Foundation Board of Trustees Executive Committee, began higher education at OSU before earning undergraduate and law degrees at other institutions.

The Provost's Faculty Match Program supports a central goal of The Campaign for OSU, the university's first comprehensive fundraising effort. During the campaign to date, alumni and friends have contributed more than $60 million to support faculty, creating 32 endowed faculty positions out of OSU's total of 78.

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The Provost's Faculty Match Program