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Hunt, Hillis serve as honorary chairs for IU Kokomo endowment project
October 2, 2003 | |||||||
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KOKOMO, Ind.—Founding director of IU Kokomo Virgil Hunt and eight-term Indiana Congressman Elwood “Bud” Hillis will serve as honorary chairpersons of the Kresge Science Initiative endowment project. The project seeks private gifts and grants to fulfill requirements of a $234,000 challenge grant, presented to IU Kokomo in June by the Kresge Foundation of Troy, Mich. The university will use the first grant installment of $117,000, scheduled in July 2004, to purchase equipment for biology, chemistry and physics. The remaining $117,000 will be received on the condition that, by January 2005, IU Kokomo raises an additional $468,000 to create an endowment that will be used to maintain and replace the science equipment in perpetuity. The second Kresge payment will be diverted to the endowment fund. Both co-chairs of the endowment project have close, local ties to science and the campus. Virgil Hunt served as IU Kokomo’s first campus director and a chemistry teacher from 1945–1956. He holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from IU. The Hunt family has continued to support IU Kokomo, underwriting a fellowship in graduate education, scholarships for undergraduate science majors, and a major donation in 2001, directed toward the future renovation and equipping of Hunt Hall. The grandson of noted Kokomo industrialist Elwood Haynes, Hillis served as U.S. Representative for Indiana’s Fifth District from 1971–86. Following his retirement from Congress, Hillis returned to Kokomo, where he practiced law. He became an active member of the IU Kokomo Board of Advisors and outreach chairman for the IU Kokomo Library campaign. James Alender, Chuck Bucheri and Tonya Goodier are co-chairs for the endowment project. Alender is president and CEO of Howard Community Hospital. He is a member of the IU Kokomo Advisory Board and was active in the campus’ Library campaign. Bucheri is a managing partner of Bucheri McCarty and Metz, LLP, of Kokomo and a member of the IU Kokomo Advisory Board. Bucheri studied accounting at the Kokomo campus and finished his B.S. at IUPUI in 1975. His firm initiated a scholarship for IU Kokomo business students in the early 1990s. Bucheri received the Distinguished Service Award in 1997 from the IU Kokomo Alumni Association, in 2002, the IU Kokomo chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma Business Honor Society inducted Bucheri as its first honorary member. Tonya Goodier is project director for Vega SAP software implementation for Delphi Delco Electronics Systems. She holds an M.B.A. from IU, and both her husband, Marc Goodier, and their daughter, Amber, graduated from IU Kokomo in 1996—Marc in general studies, and Amber in nursing. . Goodier said she’s worked at Delphi Delco with many capable employees who earned either IU or Purdue degree at the Kokomo campus. “”I’ve always looked to IU Kokomo as a cornerstone of this community,” she said. Committees representing the 11 counties served by IU Kokomo, as well as a central steering committee, are being formed to assist with endowment fundraising, according to Vice Chancellor for External Relations Nancy Dailey. For more information regarding volunteering or gifting for the Kresge Science Initiative endowment project, contact Dailey at (765) 455-9415.
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