Penn State Intercom......June 7, 2001

Couple gives $2 million for
theatre, education and engineering

Students in the 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 also has 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 the School of Theatre to recruit outstanding students and prepare them for professional careers in musical theatre.

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. He 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.

Wyllis Leonhard has made her family and community her career. This has involved raising their three children, spending thousands of hours volunteering in Scouts, PTAs and at the Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, and keeping their home intact during the 37 moves they've made during the course of their marriage.

The Leonhards have been benefactors of the University 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 also have 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 the University.

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