Campaign for Washington reaches $260 million

by Columns Staff | March 1, 1992

Gifts and pledges to the Campaign for Washington grew to $260 million through Dec. 31, six months before the UWs first major fund drive comes to a close.

This includes the first endowed chair in the College of Forest Resources, a $1 million gift from the Corkery family of Seattle. The donors are all UW alumni: Jack R. Corkery, ’39; his wife, Vada May Lawrence Corkery, ’42; his sister, Alberta C. Corkery, ’37; and his brother, George Corkery, Jr., ’41. The chair commemorates the family’s long involvement in forestry in the Northwest—dating back to George Corkery, Sr. ‘s arrival in the Northwest in 1914—and with the College of Forest Resources, from which Jack and George Corkery, Jr., graduated.

“The Corkery family’s gift is another splendid example of the remarkable support we continue to receive from alumni and friends,” says UW President William P. Gerberding. “During the campaign, the number of endowed professorships has increased almost four­fold, from 14 to 55, and the number of endowed chairs has increased from 10 to 18. When we compete with other universities to attract good faculty—or keep our best people here—these gifts make a tremendous difference.”

Year-end gifts and pledges will create endowed fellowships in several schools and colleges:

• William H. Pierre, Sr., ’37, committed $100,000 to the College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences for an endowed fellowship to support graduate students in aquaculture.
• Boeing committed $100,000 of its campaign pledge for an endowed fellowship in the School of Social Work, to help recruit and support economically disadvantaged students, particularly minorities.
• Friends and family of Hope Barnes, an outstanding doctoral student in medicinal chemistry, have given or pledged a total of $100,000 for a graduate fellowship in her name in the School of Pharmacy. Barnes, who was a member of the 1980 and 1984 U.S. Olympic rowing teams, died in a climbing accident in the Cascade Mountains in January, 1991.