SMU celebrates New York area commitments, gifts
to historic “Second Century” fundraising campaign

DALLAS (SMU) – Alumni, parents and friends of SMU from the New York region were honored March 26 at Lincoln Center’s Stanley Kaplan Penthouse in Manhattan for their generous combined commitments of more than $7.5 million toward Southern Methodist University’s Second Century Campaign.

SMU President R. Gerald Turner, University officials and representatives of the Campaign Steering Committee for the New York region hosted over 170 members of the SMU community in the New York tri-state area – home to more than 2,700 alumni and more than 150 current students.  The celebration underscored the impact that Second Century Campaign donors in the region have made on SMU students, faculty and the campus.

The Campaign momentum includes twenty-eight major gift commitments of $50,000 or more from the New York region.  Connecticut parents Mary Helen and Mike Fabacher have made a $1 million gift to endow the Fabacher Professor of Alternative Asset Management in SMU’s Cox School of Business.  Dr. William Green ’69 and Dianne Warren Green ’70, Amy and John Phelan ’86, Mark Robertson ’85 and parents Katie and Matt Gormly, all members of the Campaign Steering Committee for New York, have made contributions exceeding $100,000 in support of the University.

“New York is a long way from Dallas if you are just looking at mileage,” said SMU President Turner.  “But the generous gifts we have received from alumni, parents and friends in this region provide clear evidence that miles don’t matter when we work together.   The many talented students we draw from the tri-state area will benefit from these generous gifts – as will the entire SMU community.”  

More than 1,500 donors from the New York region have made more than 3,000 gifts to SMU’s Second Century Campaign, which began in September 2008, and 24 percent of regional alumni made a gift in fiscal year 2012.  One hundred twenty-two tri-state donors have been recognized as President’s Associates for making cumulative contributions to SMU of $1,000 or more during a fiscal year, and 372 have been recognized for inclusion in SMU’s Hilltop Society for two-to-20 consecutive years of giving to the University.

“This community of alumni, parents and friends across the tri-state region takes great pride in SMU’s growing prominence here in the northeast and around the country,” said James H. MacNaughton ’72, ’73, co-chair of the Campaign Steering Committee for New York.  “SMU’s students and faculty are doing great things, and we are inspired by the opportunity to help build a foundation for the university’s next century.”

To date, SMU’s Second Century Campaign has received commitments of more than $714 million toward its goal of $750 million to support student quality, faculty and academic excellence and the campus experience. The campaign coincides with SMU’s celebration of the 100^th anniversary of the University’s founding in 1911 and its opening in 1915.

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SMU is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls nearly 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools.

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