Torchbearer: Winter 1996

Campaign Nears Goal

With more than $200 million already given or pledged, the 21st Century Campaign moves steadily toward its $250 million goal.

All the UT campuses and institutes throughout Tennessee are involved in the campaign, targeted to conclude in 1998. The campaign goal is increased funding for scholarships, faculty awards, research, libraries, and service activities.

Gifts to UT last year totaled more than $46 million, $27.5 million of that coming to UT Knoxville. A record number of individuals, corporations, and foundations -- more than 53,000 -- made gifts.

Some recent campaign gifts of note:

* $1 million from John and Janice Fisher of Muncie, Ind. John Fisher ('38) is national vice chair of the campaign and former CEO of the Ball Corp. The gift will be used in the colleges of engineering and business administration.

* $500,000 from Henry ('43) and Billie Grace ('44) Goodrich of Birmingham. Their gift is designated to the colleges from which they graduated, engineering and education respectively.

* $400,000 to the Institute of Agriculture from Jim and Sandy Powell of Limestone, Tenn. Jim Powell is president of Powell Construction Co., headquartered in Johnson City and with offices in Nashville. He chairs the agriculture steering committee of the campaign.

* $250,000 from Panhandle Eastern Corp. for scholarships in business administration. The chairman of Panhandle Eastern's board is Dennis Hendrix ('62). The firm is headquartered in Houston.

* $100,000 for a law scholarship fund honoring W. Hugh Overcash ('49, '51, '52). The gift is from Overcash and two former employers, Georgia-Pacific Corp. and Ashland Oil.

* Trust funds that, with previous gifts, total more than $700,000 from Paul and Marion Miles of Knoxville. The funds are for the UTK libraries. Paul Miles is with American Express Financial Advisors and chairs the libraries' phase of the 21st Century Campaign.

UT employees throughout the state have given and pledged almost $6 million through the "Family Campaign" portion of the 21st Century Campaign.