Leonhards Give $2 Million To Benefit Musical Theatre, Engineering And Education
May 25, 2001
University Park, Pa.—Students in Penn State’s musical theatre program in the College of Arts and Architecture will benefit from a $1 million endowment created by William E. and Wyllis M. Leonhard. The State College couple has also given $1 million to divide equally between two existing endowments in the College of Engineering and the College of Education.
Income from the Wyllis M. Leonhard Endowment for Music and Dance will enable Penn State’s School of Theatre to recruit outstanding students and prepare them for professional careers in musical theatre.
“Bill and I have always enjoyed supporting a wide range of activities at Penn State,” said Wyllis Leonhard. “We simply love the energy, enthusiasm and spirit of the musical theatre students. They brighten our lives and many others’, too.”
Her husband added, “We see an abundance of opportunities for other potential donors who might like to add their support to ours.”
The Leonhards committed an additional $1 million to be divided equally between the Leonhard Honors Scholarship Program, which they previously endowed in the College of Engineering, and a scholarship fund in the College of Education that is named in honor of their daughter, Jeanne, a 1968 College of Education graduate.
William Leonhard, a Middletown native, retired as chair and chief executive officer of the California-based Parsons Corp., one of the world’s largest construction and
engineering firms, in 1990. Before joining Parsons, he had a 28-year career in the Air Force and Army Corps of Engineers. He is a 1936 Penn State graduate in electrical engineering.
The Leonhards have been benefactors of Penn State for many years. In the College of Engineering alone, they have endowed the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education, several faculty positions and an honors program. They have also endowed a chair in the College of Education. The Leonhard Building, formally dedicated in 1999 on the University Park campus, was named in 1993 in recognition of their generous support to Penn State.
William Leonhard serves on the executive committee of Penn State’s Grand Destiny Campaign, the University’s seven-year effort to raise $1.3 billion in private support to strengthen Penn State’s overall mission of teaching, research and service.
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Contacts:
Mike Bezilla 863-4512 (work) 238-5842 (home) mxb13@psu.edu
Laura Stocker 863-4512 (work) lstocker@psu.edu