Usher assumes top OSU Foundation post

Tom Usher

Tom Usher, senior director with the Portland office of the global real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield, Inc., has been elected chairman of the Oregon State University Foundation Board of Governors. He will serve a one-year term, overseeing what Foundation representatives describe as one of the most ambitious fund-raising agendas in OSU history.

Usher, a 1970 graduate of the OSU College of Business, has been active with the Foundation since the 1980s, when he chaired the organization’s real property committee. In 1992 he was elected a trustee and served the board as treasurer in 1999-2000 and, last year, as vice chair.

In addition to his leadership with the university, Usher serves on the board of the Portland Chamber of Commerce and is a founding member of the Ambassador Program, a project of the Portland Development Commission that advances economic development goals for the Portland metro area. He is a past president of the Multnomah Athletic Club and currently serves as chair of the club’s long-range planning committee.

Usher succeeds Margaret "Peggy" Wood, ’61, a financial management executive with the Portland firm of Hallock/Modey, Inc. Wood remains on the board as immediate past chair.
Duane McDougall, CEO of Willamette Industries, Inc. and a 1974 graduate of the OSU College of Business, is the Foundation’s new vice chair. William V. Humphries, CEO of Citizens Bank in Corvallis, continues as vice chair for finance.

Usher is a member of Phi Delta Theta national fraternity a well as the Waverly Country Club and the Arlington Club. He is married to Ann Usher, a 1970 graduate of the University of Washington. They have two sons.

Greg Drew

The gift will be held in a Venture Philanthropy Fund, a portfolio of start-up holdings, until the company goes public. Proceeds from future sale of the stock will support programs that combine engineering with entrepreneurial studies. Drew, a member of the campaign cabinet for the fund-raising effort, was attracted to Oregon State opportunities through his company’s search for talented engineering graduates.

While a dollar value cannot be placed on the gift until there is an initial public offering (IPO) of 800.com stock, fund-raising staff at the OSU Foundation believe the gift will be at the "leadership" levels for the campaign.

Ron Adams, dean of the College of Engineering, is pleased with the gift and the concept. "Our goal to help build Oregon’s new economy includes developing technology entrepreneurs," says Adams, "and for support of the effort to be based, in part, on venture capital stock, is right in line with those ambitions."

A volunteer committee of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists will work with the Foundation’s board of governors and investment counsel to decide when – and whether – to sell the stock gifts.

"This is a great opportunity for the college to build up a portfolio of pre-IPO stock, much like a venture capital firm," Drew says. "Not all the gifts will pay off, but some will pay off handsomely." Clearly, Drew, as founder of the company, is convinced 800.com stock will fall into the latter category.

"Oregon has a growing number of entrepreneurial executives who are extremely dependent on technology," he says. "They want to see OSU reach its goal of creating a top engineering college, but their capital is committed to their core businesses. Through the Venture Philanthropy Fund, OSU is showing them that founders’ stock, which is easy to give, can really make a difference." And Drew knows how these firms think. While establishing 800.com, he negotiated over $121 million in venture backing. The latest round, $20 million, was approved in May 2001.

"The saying ‘Venture capital always follows intellectual capital’ is true," Drew notes. "That is why a highly respected engineering school is key for the success of Oregon’s economy."

The Venture Philanthropy Fund also ties in nicely with the College of Engineering’s plans for a Venture Partnership Program. That program will provide instructional and internship programs in partnership with technology companies. Part of the program envisions a residential college on the OSU campus, housed in historic Weatherford Hall, where students will organize themselves into entrepreneurial start-up businesses as part of both their academic and their student life experiences at Oregon State.

"Under the Venture Partnership Program, everyone wins." says Drew. "The high-tech industry gets to network with OSU’s top engineering students, and students benefit from interaction with cutting-edge start-up firms like ours. All the while, the donors to the Venture Fund enjoy the satisfaction of knowing their assets and holdings are helping prepare – and recruit – the coming decade’s most talented employees. It’s really a remarkable win-win all the way around."

Native American scholarship honors family’s legacy of learning
By Stephen Lont

Angela Pfeifer, a sophomore in exercise and sports science and the first recipient of the Kilbuck scholarship, is of Tlingit (a southeast Alaska tribe) ancestry.University’s major benefactors tour area family businesses

For Ray, ’74, and Nancy Asbury, ’70, commitment to higher education has been one of the family’s strongest and oldest traditions, dating back as far as the 1700s. Now, to honor their families — and with a 2-to-1 match from Ray Asbury’s employer, Intel Corporation — the couple has created a scholarship to assist others seeking a college education. Because of Intel’s matching gift program, their $20,000 gift of stock has grown to more than $60,000.

Called the Kilbuck Family Scholarship for Native Americans, the annual award supports students of Native American descent who are from Alaska or Oregon. Although named after Ray Asbury’s grandfather, Joseph Henry Kilbuck, who was of Native American descent, the scholarship is also a tribute to Nancy Asbury’s father, Allen Scott.

"Both of my parents’ families felt that an educated person is what one should want to be, the hallmark of one who will contribute to society and get more out of life," Nancy Asbury said.
Nancy Asbury’s great-grandfather, Reverend Walter Quincy Scott, served as president of The Ohio State University. Her grandfather, Quincy Scott, was a cartoonist for The Oregonian and was known for his social commentary. Her father, Allen Scott, ’37, was a pioneering chemist at Oregon State whose work advanced the evolution of semiconductor technology.
"My father felt it was important to be true to one’s principles, to be intellectually curious, and to work and play hard. He was an excellent role model," Nancy Asbury said.

Ray Asbury’s family shares a similar commitment. His great-grandfather John Henry Kilbuck, a Delaware Indian, traveled by himself to Pennsylvania for schooling and received a classical education at Nazareth Boys’ School and Moravian College and Seminary in Bethlehem, Pa. These schools continue to point with pride to Kilbuck, their first Native American graduate, who completed his studies in 1884. Following graduation, he and his wife, Edith, spent their professional lives in Alaska as missionaries and teachers among the native populations. They sent their four children to boarding schools and colleges in the lower 48.

Ray Asbury’s grandfather, Joseph Henry Kilbuck, graduated from Washington State College in 1914. Despite the financial set-backs he suffered losing his Hood River farm during the Depression, Joseph Kilbuck managed to send all six of his children to colleges, including OSU, Reed College, the Juilliard School, and the University of Oregon, continuing the tradition of higher education.

"I’m very pleased that I can contribute something back to my Native American community. They have warmly embraced me and my family, and I’m hoping that this gift will help make a difference to many young Native American scholars. This will be my lasting tribute to my grandfather, and to Nancy’s family as well," says Ray. Friends and other members of the extended Kilbuck and Scott families are also contributing to the fund.

John Anderson, ’75, a production manager for dental equipment manufacturer A-dec, shows OSU Foundation Council of Regents members an example of a fabricated part produced at the company’s Newberg plant. The visit was part of the June 2001 Council of Regents annual three-day program. Participants learned about several North Willamette Valley family businesses, including an industrial bakery, a coffee roasting plant, food processing plants and wineries. Council of Regents members are university donors who have given a minimum of $50,000 to the university or have committed $100,000 in deferred gifts.

Ron Adams, dean of OSU’s College of Engineering, (left) with Robert and Joyce Wilson as they sign the gift contract.

Over the years, Robert C. Wilson has been a model alumnus. The Corvallis contractor has maintained ties with OSU since he graduated in 1950. As his education enabled him to become successful and to grow his business, he volunteered on the College of Engineering Advisory Board, established scholarship funds, and even has taken OSU presidents fishing.

Now retired, Wilson has given land valued at $1 million to create an innovative program in OSU’s Colleges of Engineering and Business that addresses a need Wilson sees: "Today’s engineers must have business savvy to be successful," Wilson says.

The program will allow students to obtain a master’s degree in construction engineering management that includes an equal number of engineering and business courses. For qualified students, the business credits count toward an MBA degree as well.

"R.C. Wilson’s gift allows us to deliver what I believe will be a mark of national leadership for OSU," said Ron Adams, dean of the College of Engineering. "We’ve created a degree program that combines the technical skills of construction management with business skills you would find in a traditional MBA program."

Adams added that the new program will better satisfy the needs of students and ultimately benefit industry. He said the ground-breaking cooperation between the colleges of engineering and business goes "right to the heart of the new economy because it develops both technical skills and entrepreneurial skills."

The new program will be called the Robert C. Wilson Graduate Program in Construction Engineering Management.

The gift, part of OSU’s technology campaign to build a top-25 engineering college, will be held in an endowment, with annual earnings supporting the new program. The new degree program, following university governance approvals, is expected to be fully operational within a year.

Wilson says he began seriously considering donating the land after he heard Adams speak about the need for graduating engineers to be more knowledgeable about enterprise. "From my experience, I knew that was true," Wilson said. "When I saw that the dean would likely support an interdisciplinary program with business, I decided to approach him about it. He was very receptive."