Seeking to broaden educational opportunities for residents of southwestern Pennsylvania, the Eberly Foundation of Uniontown has given Penn State Fayette $5.5 million for a variety of scholarship and faculty endowments.
The foundation designated its gift for the following programs:
* $1.5 million to create scholarships for students enrolled in Penn State Fayette's new four-year business program;
* $1.5 million to establish a faculty chair in business;
* $1.5 million to establish two professorships in business;
* an additional $1 million for the Eberly Family Fayette Campus Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarship awards to Fayette County residents studying at the Fayette campus.
The additional $1 million for the scholarship fund increases the total Eberly family investment in the fund to $3 million.
"We want the young people of our area to be able to get a quality education locally -- an education that will equip them to make important contributions to their communities," said Robert E. Eberly, foundation president. "That's why we were especially pleased when Penn Sate implemented a four-year program in business at the Fayette campus. We think it's going to be a definite asset in the economic revitalization of southwestern Pennsylvania."
Robert Eberly, a 1939 Penn State graduate, is chairman of Eberly and Meade Inc., a natural gas production company. He and Patricia Miller, also an officer of Eberly and Meade, serve as officers of the Eberly Foundation. Foundation trustees include Robert Eberly's sons Robert Jr. and Paul, his sister, Carolyn Blaney and her daughter, Ruth Carter, and his
sister, Margaret George, and her daughter, Jill Drost. The Eberly family has been among Penn State's most generous benefactors for many years.
"This latest gift from the Eberlys builds on local support that convinced us to implement the business program at the Fayette campus," said President Graham B. Spanier. "Fayette County residents described a critical need to create and nurture small businesses as a way to boost regional growth. Now the Eberly Foundation has stepped forward to help create a solid base for this community-oriented program, and we are deeply grateful."
Gregory Gray, who became Penn State Fayette's campus executive officer Aug. 1, outlined the impact of the Eberly gift.
"The Eberly scholarships will make our campus more competitive in recruiting the most academically talented students," he said. "The Eberly Chair and the two professorships will likewise help us attract and retain the most talented faculty, and this in turn will also help our enrollment, since the best teachers attract more students."
Income from the endowments for the chair and the professorships can be used for salary supplements, teaching innovations, research and other scholarly activities. One of the business program's goals is to forge stronger bonds among the campus and local businesses and economic development organizations.
Robert Eberly and his late father and mother, Orville and Ruth Eberly, were instrumental in the founding of Penn State Fayette in 1965. The Eberly Foundation has since supported the campus through scholarship funds, an endowment for science education, physical plant improvements and in numerous other ways. In 1994, Robert Eberly and his wife, Elouise, gave $1 million to endow two Elouise Ross Eberly Professorships in Nursing, one of which is at the Fayette campus.
The largest of the Eberly gifts to Penn State came in 1987 when the family gave $10 million to help endow what is now the Eberly College of Science at University Park.
Robert Eberly continues to serve Penn State as an honorary chair of the University's forthcoming capital campaign, now in the advance gifts phase. In addition to this $5.5-million gift, the Eberly Foundation previously made a $5-million gift to the University's College of Medicine as part of the capital campaign.
Robert Eberly earned a degree in chemistry from Penn State and joined his father in their Uniontown-based oil and natural gas exploration business, which eventually became Eberly and Meade Inc. He also engaged in banking and retired as chairman of Gallitin National Bank in 1990. In 1972, Penn State named him a distinguished alumnus, the highest award it bestows on its graduates.