November 9, 2021

Seed Gift Honoring Roland Reiss Among a Fundraising Bumper Crop This Fall

Dawn Arrowsmith with her late husband Roland Reiss (Photo credit: CGU alumna Jill Thayer, PhD, Cultural Studies/Museum Studies, '11.) — SUPPORT FOR THE ARTS: A gift from Dawn Arrowsmith in support of her late husband Roland Reiss is laying the foundation for the Roland Reiss Fellowship to help Art Department students. (Photo credit: CGU alumna Jill Thayer, PhD, Cultural Studies/Museum Studies, '11.)

With several significant fundraising announcements still in the pipeline, the CGU community is celebrating some recent gifts that, for CGU President Len Jessup, are a clear sign that “the CGU flame is burning bright this season.”

“There’s a culture of philanthropy growing on our campus,” Jessup said in a message featured in the November issue of the CGUniverse newsletter. The following are among new gifts reported by the university’s Development and External Relations team and highlighted by Jessup in that newsletter.

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INVESTING IN THE POWER OF ART: Professor Emeritus Roland Reiss, who saw “art as an adventure in which one discovers new territories,” will be honored posthumously with a fellowship endowment bearing his name. His widow, Dawn Arrowsmith, herself an artist, has established the endowment with a seed gift. The Roland Reiss Fellowship will be designed to enhance financial assistance to students in the Department of Art.

“Dawn is a distinguished artist and generous art alumna who is investing in the future of CGU,” said Lori Anne Ferrell, dean of the School of Arts & Humanities. “Her generous gift has already inspired the gifts of others. This shared generosity will allow the Reiss Fellowship to grow and flourish annually. I can think of nothing more fitting, given Roland’s understanding of art’s true purpose: to serve a world that needs bold acts of creativity.” Read more about Reiss’s life and career.

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EXPANDING OPPORTUNITIES FOR MATH STUDENTS: The Institute of Mathematical Sciences will use a new endowment for fellowships to attract and support highly talented students, particularly those from underrepresented and nontraditional groups. The Engelberg Fellowships in the Mathematical Sciences, endowed through a $2 million gift, are named in honor and memory of mathematical statistician Ora Engelberg Percus, the mother of IMS Professor Allon Percus. The gift, the largest in the institute’s history, comes from the estate of Percus’s mother and is the result of her acute sense of analysis that extended to investment strategy—most notably, a modest purchase of Apple stock some 40 years ago. Read more.

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RAISING THE PROFILE OF FAMILY BUSINESSES: Through the generosity of an alumnus, the Drucker School’s Global Family Business Institute will use a new award to recognize exemplary contributions to business or society by a family business or a family business leader. The annual Dr. Peter S. Sealey, PhD Award in Family Business at the Drucker School of Management will support the mission and vision of the institute and provide international recognition of the vital importance of family business. Sealey (MA, ’90; PhD, ’97, Management) and his wife, Elizabeth Sealey, endowed the award with a $1 million gift. Read more.

Interested in supporting CGU students and faculty? Contact Andrew Schlerf, associate director of donor engagement, at 909-607-4405 or by email.