Foley named CEO of the OSU Foundation
For the past two years, Dwayne Foley, ’67, has been fine-tuning the OSU Alumni Association. Under his direction, the organization has refined its business and management strategy, strengthened alumni programs, and helped transform the Oregon Stater from a tabloid into a magazine.

Because of his proven leadership and commitment to Oregon State, Foley, a former executive for Northwest Natural, has been named CEO of the Oregon State University Foundation. He will remain executive director of the Alumni Association, but he will relinquish day-to-day management to others.

Tom Usher, ’70, past chairman of the OSU Foundation Board of Governors, said Foley’s management experience in the business community and with the OSU Alumni Association will serve him well at the helm of the foundation that has the largest endowment of Oregon’s public universities.

"The leadership that Dwayne Foley brings to the table will unquestionably help the OSU Foundation grow and prosper," Usher said. "It has long been a goal of the university to have its foundation and its alumni association work more closely together, and Dwayne’s familiarity with both organizations is a tremendous asset."

Oregon State President Paul Risser said the university will benefit from Foley’s familiarity with both organizations and his experience in the corporate world.

"The power of Dwayne Foley’s appointment will result from bringing together more effectively than ever the programs of the OSU Alumni Association for our alumni and friends with the giving opportunities managed by the OSU Foundation," Risser said. "People and organizations give to OSU because they know they can make an impact and because they see and understand the university’s rapid progress and momentum."

Foley sees the work of the OSU Foundation as "about people, relationships, connections and — ultimately — about the realization of dreams."

"Beneath that, it is necessary to have in place the professionals, the systems, the skills and the information necessary to make it work for the university and for its supporters," he said. "As CEO, it is my role to create the environment and structure to make it flourish."

Foley succeeds Rebecca Cole, who resigned in January, as the leader of the OSU Foundation. Orcilia Zuniga-Forbes, vice president for university advancement at OSU, has served the last five months as interim CEO.

Anonymous engineering benefactor revealed
By Gregg Kleiner

Kelley’s gift, along with $20 million in public funding authorized by the state legislature, will help build a new, 146,000-sq.-ft. engineering building at the center of campus beginning this fall. When it opens in fall 2004, the Kelley Engineering Center will house the rapidly growing departments of computer science and electrical and computer engineering.

When Oregon State University launched its drive to create a top-25 engineering program two years ago, it kicked off the campaign by announcing a $20 million gift from an alumnus who wished to remain anonymous. On May 15, at a downtown Portland press conference, the benefactor stepped forward saying he hopes that "others will be inspired" to follow his lead and support OSU’s effort to build its College of Engineering into one of the nation’s best.

Martin N. Kelley, a 1950 OSU civil engineering graduate and retired vice president and chief engineer of Peter Kiewit Sons’, Inc., one of the nation’s largest construction companies, says he was moved to contribute the $20 million toward construction of a new engineering building (see inset photo) after hearing Ron Adams, dean of the OSU College of Engineering, present his vision for building a top-tier engineering school by 2010.

"I listened to Ron Adams articulate what it would take to move the college up to one of the top 25, and I was very pleased and impressed with what he had to say," Kelley said.

He then asked Adams what would be the most important component in building a top-ranked engineering program at OSU, and Adams responded that the key was attracting outstanding people — faculty, students and staff.

"I entirely agreed with that," Kelley said. "But they needed a place to put all these new people, the top professors and outstanding students. So I thought if they could kick off the campaign with a new building, that would be a tremendous boost to get things started and a good lead to inspire others to support the top-25 effort at Oregon State."

That is just what Kelley’s gift has done, according to Dean Adams.
"Martin Kelley is a very high integrity individual," Adams said. "His gift launched the top-25 drive and sent a very powerful message to the public and to OSU engineering faculty and staff that this endeavor is something people are willing to invest in, that it is definitely going to happen."

A ground-breaking ceremony for the Kelley Engineering Center is scheduled for Sept. 21.
During a civil engineering career that spanned more than 40 years, Kelley played key roles in some of the world’s largest and most complex engineering projects — from Oregon’s Detroit Dam and the San Francisco Trans-Bay Tube and Tunnel Project, to the Danish Great Belt Crossing off the coast of Denmark and New York City’s 63rd Street Tube and Tunnel Project.

Kelley has received the two highest engineering honors given in this country: the 1988 Golden Beaver Award for Outstanding Achievement in Heavy Engineering Construction and the 1999 Moles Members Award. He is only the second engineer in history to have earned both awards.

In 2002 OSU recognized him with the E.B. Lemon Award, the most prestigious award offered by the university and the Alumni Association. OSU
For more on the 2002 E.B. Lemon Award, please see related article in Association News section. For more on the Kelley Engineering Center, see page 46 of the April Oregon Stater.

Challenge grant to help 4-H Foundation expand conference center, natural resources education
By Steven Lont

Youth from Washington County 4-H examine and identify pond life at the 4-H Conference and Education Center, with some guidance from Extension specialist Virginia Bourdeau, ’80.

Oregon’s youth will have more opportunities to learn about frogs, ferns and the complicated ecosystems in which they live, thanks to the Ford Family Foundation, which has announced a $500,000 challenge grant to expand the 4-H Conference and Education Center near Salem.

The one-for-one match will provide funding to construct eight cottages and an education building at the outdoor youth camp where OSU Extension staff design and test hands-on natural resources teaching materials. The estimated cost of the expansion is $1.3 million.

The center serves youth groups such as 4-H clubs, schools, church groups and Scouts. In addition, the center hosts conferences and invites volunteers from around the state to attend training seminars. These volunteers then bring the 4-H curriculum to youth groups in their areas, providing a statewide influence.

Jim Rutledge, state 4-H program leader, says the matching grant will make a big difference for the center’s programs by increasing the housing capacity and at the same time increasing space to design and market the natural resources curriculum.

"We have helped develop some nationally recognized education materials," Rutledge said, "but we are not able to effectively market them because of a lack of space. The expansion will allow for the development of new curricula and create space for meeting with clients and training teachers and volunteers to use the materials we’ve already designed."

He says the expansion will "move 4-H toward our goal of becoming the preferred provider of natural resources education materials for youth in Oregon."

Plans call for a 2,500-square-foot education building that will house the center’s offices, a 30-person classroom, and curriculum development space. The cottages each will include four bedrooms and a meeting room and will have "modern" amenities including showers, heating and an increased level of privacy.

The Oregon 4-H Conference and Education Center, which is owned and operated by the Oregon 4-H Foundation, is located on 320 acres, including timberland, wetlands, and meadows, and is home to diverse wildlife in several different ecosystems. Facilities include lodges, a dining hall, interpretive trails and learning shelters that provide covered areas for educational programs.

Groundbreaking will begin this fall, Rutledge said.

Institute receives grant for Willamette Project College of Forestry Dean Hal Salwasser and University Librarian Karyle Butcher discuss conservation while touring the Willamette River.

On hot summer days in many parts of Oregon you’ll see throngs of kids jumping into the local river, splashing and playing, shrieking with delight.

That’s not the case for most of the Willamette. Parents know the river is polluted, and most wouldn’t dream of letting their children wade, let alone swim.

Recent studies indicate that despite years of effort by many people and many programs, the health of the basin continues to decline. The number of people living in the basin is expected to double in the next 50 years, and this growth will put even more pressure on water resources, sensitive habitats, endangered species and Oregonians’ prized quality of life.

To help scientists, community members, and local governments be better informed about existing and new research, the Meyer Memorial Trust has announced that it will fund the Willamette Basin Conservation Project at OSU’s Institute for Natural Resources. The $600,000 grant will help OSU scientists and information technology experts catalogue and index conservation efforts throughout the Willamette Basin and make the data available to the public.

"Without coordination, the gains made in one place can be cancelled out by losses elsewhere," said Hal Salwasser, dean of the College of Forestry at OSU and head of the grant committee. "Unless people see positive results from their conservation efforts, they become reluctant to spend more time and energy on new projects."

The Willamette project has several parts. First, it will translate years’ worth of research data into maps and tables that can help people choose where to focus their conservation time and dollars for the most benefit. The technical information will be available through the Internet from a natural resources digital library to be managed by OSU Libraries.

Karyle Butcher, the Donald and Delpha Campbell University Librarian, says the OSU Libraries staff has expertise in organizing information and making it accessible. "We have a strong understanding of how people really use information, and we will be working with technical experts and the scientists who collected the data to create search software and a Web interface that makes it very easy for people to find what they are looking for."

The project also will help people use this information by hosting workshops and town hall meetings for local groups as they develop restoration plans in their own local areas. And to help with implementation, the project will increase access to incentives to encourage conservation activities on private land.

OSU’s Institute for Natural Resources was created last year as part of the Oregon Sustainability Act.

Foundation reports excellent year Despite the terrorist attacks of September, the rocky financial markets and corporate scandals, OSU’s friends and alumni were very generous with the university in 2001–2002. The OSU Foundation reports that it received more than $35.5 million in gifts and pledges, which is the second best year on record for fund raising. In 2000-2001, the Foundation received $40.5 million, the year alumnus Martin Kelley made his $20 million commitment to engineering. "OSU’s alumni and friends see opportunities to make OSU a greater university, and they are continuing to give to make their dreams for OSU become a reality," said Dwayne Foley, OSU Foundation President and CEO. "Even when the national psyche is occupied with important matters, OSU donors support education because they know how significant their gifts are." In 2001–2002 outright gifts and pledges exceeded $26.4 million, corporations matched more than $500,000 in gifts from their employees, and net deferred gifts (such as gift annuities and realized bequests) yielded more than $8.5 million. In addition to new gifts, investment return data show that OSU’s endowment continues to outperform its peer endowments, ranking in the top 10 percent for annualized investment return over a five-year period through December 2001. Private support provided special enhancements to more than 80 programs on campus, including scholarships, teaching, research and facilities.