Kligmans Give $2 Million For Graduate Fellowships

March 23, 2000
University Park, Pa. -- Graduate students in Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development will have more opportunities to pursue their education and research goals thanks to a gift from Drs. Albert and Lorraine Kligman. The Philadelphia couple has established an endowment valued at $2 million to create the Albert M. Kligman Graduate Fellowship.

"The Kligmans’ own lives demonstrate the highest levels of achievement in scholarship, research and education, with major discoveries and accomplishments impacting science, gerontology and medical care," said University President Graham Spanier. "And they continue to serve, inspire and motivate others."

Albert and Lorraine Kligman have helped unlock many of the mysteries of skin physiology and aging, including the development of Retin A, an "anti-wrinkle" cream widely used for acne and photo-aged skin. The recipients of numerous professional awards and citations, they are both widely known as eminent scholars and articulate spokespersons for the scientific process.

Albert Kligman began his educational career at Penn State Mont Alto, where he enrolled in the forestry program. He received a bachelor's degree in botany from Penn State in 1939.

"I came from a poor family and we were in the middle of the Great Depression when I was of college age," he said. "There was no money for tuition, even though it was only $100 a year. I wrote to the Forestry School at Mont Alto and asked for a job, since that was the only way I could earn the money I needed. They gave me the job. Without that start, I might be out on the street today. I'm just paying off an old debt."

While a Penn State student, Albert was an accomplished varsity gymnast and a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a doctor of philosophy degree in botany in 1942 and a doctor of medicine degree in 1947, both from the University of Pennsylvania. The Kligmans are professors emeriti at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. "How perfect it is that this fellowship has been created by these particular individuals," noted Lynne Vernon-Feagans, interim dean of the College of Health and Human Development. "I cannot think of two more appropriate role models to champion the need for support in the area of graduate education. Albert and Lorraine understand the challenges and rigors of graduate activities, and the necessity to continue to promote and support them. They have provided an enormously important legacy for countless numbers of future graduate students and researchers."

Albert Kligman is a member of the volunteer committee that is leading Health and Human Development’s portion of Penn State’s Grand Destiny Campaign, an effort to raise $1 billion in private gifts over the seven-year period ending June 30, 2003. He received the University's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1998 and was honored as the college's Alumni Fellow in 1999.

In previous philanthropy to Penn State, the Kligmans endowed undergraduate scholarships at the Mont Alto campus and a fund for student research in the College of Health and Human Development.

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