A Campaign Worth Celebrating

Bill Ward ’67, co-chair of the Knowledge for the World Campaign for the Whiting School of Engineering, and Benjamin T. Rome Dean Nick Jones have announced that the Whiting School has exceeded its campaign goal of $160 million, raising a record $162 million as of December 31, 2008. The school’s effort was part of Johns Hopkins’ larger Knowledge for the World Campaign, which raised $3.75 billion. Over the course of the campaign, which began in July 2000, more than 7,000 Whiting School alumni, as well as many friends, foundations, and corporations, participated at all levels.

“On behalf of my fellow chairs, Gil Decker ’58 and Kwok Li ’79, I want to thank each and every one of you who have participated in the campaign,” said Ward. “You will be hearing more about the many accomplishments of the campaign, and what your support has enabled, but on behalf of the campaign leadership, we could not be more grateful.”

The campaign is not only about funds raised, but what these funds have allowed, and will allow, the Whiting School to accomplish.

“As the Knowledge for the World Campaign comes to a close,” said Jones, “I am more excited and optimistic than ever about the future and where the Whiting School is heading. The support and commitment of alumni and friends through the campaign give us the necessary resources to continue to set the pace and be a leading school of engineering in the years ahead.”

Since the beginning of the campaign, gifts to the Whiting School have provided:

• 36 scholarships
• 19 graduate fellowships
• 9 full and junior professorships
• Collaborative research programs in fields including computational medicine, nanobiotechnology, robotics, alternative energy sources, financial mathematics, and tissue engineering
• Support for the construction of the Computational Science and Engineering Building, Charles Commons, and for the renovation of research laboratories across the school

In addition, the generous gift by Jim Clark to name the Benjamin T. Rome Deanship will allow the Whiting School to make the investments necessary to continue the campaign’s momentum far into the future.

A Great Statement of Faith in the Future

Mentorship, leadership, and education—these three themes were woven into every aspect of the Benjamin T. Rome Deanship Dedication, held on the Homewood campus on October 6, 2008.

More than the formal ceremony during which Nicholas P. Jones was named the inaugural Benjamin T. Rome Dean, the event was a celebration of the Whiting School and the people and relationships that contribute to its success.

University leaders, friends, faculty, students, alumni, and staff from the Whiting School and across Johns Hopkins gathered in the Shriver Hall Auditorium to mark the occasion (the dedication of only the third endowed deanship at Johns Hopkins University), and to pay tribute to the late Benjamin Rome ’25 and A. James Clark, the individual whose generosity made this possible.

Last spring, Clark, a leading commercial builder, committed $10 million to endow the deanship in honor of his mentor and business colleague Benjamin T. Rome. The gift provides permanent stream of unrestricted support that the school’s deans—present and future— will be able to invest strategically in faculty, students, and programs.

“It’s an investment in the future of an entire school and produces truly remarkable returns for generations to come,” said Provost Kristina Johnson, adding, “Few gifts make a more profound or lasting difference at a university than the creation of an endowed deanship.”

Much of the ceremony’s focus was on Clark, the important role he has played at the Whiting School of Engineering over the years, and the knowledge and values instilled in him by Ben Rome. “Ben Rome was not only my first boss but a wonderful mentor as well,” Clark noted. He added, “I owe much of my success, and the success of our business, to Ben. He was a great friend and teacher, and I am
honored to be able to memorialize his name at his alma mater.”

Jones expressed his gratitude to Clark and Rome, two individuals who he observed, “lived their conviction that acting to help others is quite simply the right thing to do.” Jones also had the opportunity to pay tribute to his mentor, Ross Corotis, explaining that through his relationship with Corotis, he also understands, “how important mentors are and the influence they can have on future generations.”

The formal ceremony also included a video paying tribute to Rome and was followed by a tented celebration on the quad.