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The University of Maine announced Monday it has received a $2 million gift that will fund two new positions at UMaine, graduate fellowships and an emergency “excellence” fund.
Alston D. “Pete” Correll and Ada Lee Correll of Atlanta, Ga., donated the gift as part of a philanthropic effort to give back to UMaine. Alston Correll received two engineering degrees from UMaine in 1966 and 1967.
The gift will fund a new presidential chairperson in energy — someone who will complement professor Habib Dagher and help advance UMaine’s offshore wind and tidal power research efforts. It will also fund new graduate fellowships for research in each of UMaine’s five colleges, scholarship money in the Department of Environmental Sciences, a professorship in early childhood literacy at the College of Education and Human Development, as well as an unrestricted excellence fund intended for opportunities President Robert Kennedy may wish to invest in, but which the university may not foresee.
“We are passionate about education and children,” Ada Correll said in a press release. “That’s why the educational component was included in the gift.”
“We left Maine a whole lot more prepared to deal with the world than when we moved there, and we remember our time at the university and in the community fondly,” Ada Correll said.
Joe Carr, director of University Relations, said the university is not sure who will fill the professorship or new chair position, but said the first will likely be sought from among national experts. The professorship will likely be filled by someone at UMaine. Both positions will last five years — the duration of the gift.
Eric Rolfson, vice president for Development and Alumni Relations, said UMaine received the gift several months ago but waited until Monday to announce it because of the professorship it’s intended to fund. The University of Maine System board of trustees meeting was Monday, and since they have final approval of new professorships, the university waited to receive it before announcing the gift.
Rolfson said the money will not fund undergraduate scholarships.
UMaine’s largest single donation came in the form of $12 million in 2007 after George L. Houston, a UMaine alumnus, left the money to the university in his will.
“This gift represents a landmark moment for UMaine, and we look forward to using it to reinforce the institution’s unique and vital role as the state’s research and graduate education university,” Kennedy said in a press release.
The Atlanta Chapter of the Association for Fundraising Professionals recognized the Corrells in 2008 as Philanthropists of the Year for their work enhancing Atlanta’s health care, cultural and educational resources.
“It’s so much more fun to give money away than it is to earn it,” Pete Correll said in a press release. “It makes us feel really good if we can have an impact on a certain number of people and give them a chance they wouldn’t have had otherwise. That’s as good a feeling as you can have in life.”
