OSU announces three newly funded faculty positions to benefit Spears School of Business
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Puterbaugh Foundation, Links and accounting donors fund two chairs and one professorship
View Full List of Endowed Faculty Chair Announcements
Contributing donors to the business school include The Puterbaugh Foundation, Tucker
& Vickie Link and 140 accounting donors.
“We sincerely appreciate these generous and important gifts from The Puterbaugh Foundation,
the Links and our dedicated accounting alumni,” said OSU President Burns Hargis.
“The Puterbaugh chair is a wonderful honor and true privilege for those fortunate
to serve as OSU President.”
A $500,000 gift from The Puterbaugh Foundation will establish a faculty chair to be
held exclusively by the OSU President. The chair will be held by current OSU President
Burns Hargis within the William S. Spears School of Business where he is currently
on the faculty. While President Hargis’ area of focus will center on banking, finance
and legal studies, the chair will center on the research of future OSU presidents’
academic disciplines.
“Our foundation came up with this concept of the rotating chair to support the academic
credentials of the current OSU president,” said Justice Steven Taylor, foundation
trustee and ’71 political science alumnus. “We wanted to establish a chair that could
be held by President Burns Hargis and every future president of OSU. We believe in
OSU and the mission of the land-grant university, and this gift demonstrates our confidence
in the university as a result of hiring Burn Hargis. That selection gave us a boost
of optimism.”
More than $400,000 was received from 140 donors to create an accounting professorship
honoring current accounting professor Dr. Patrick Dorr. The Patrick Dorr Beta Alpha
Psi Professorship in Accounting was established to recognize Dorr’s 32 years of service
to the School of Accounting and Chi Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi, the national honorary
and professional accounting student organization at OSU. Accounting Advisory Board
members hope the end result of the professorship will be one step toward the goal
of returning the OSU School of Accounting to one of the top accounting programs in
the country.
“Many donors participated in the fundraising for the Pat Dorr Professorship to recognize
Pat for his outstanding leadership both in the classroom and within the School of
Accounting,” said John Linehan, alumni advisory board chairman and ’61 accounting
alumnus. “Thanks to all who believed that this could be done in little more than one
month and then made it happen.”
A $500,000 gift received from Tulsa residents Tucker and Vickie Link will establish
an endowed chair in accounting honoring Tucker’s mentor and OSU accounting professor,
Dr. Wilton “Andy” Anderson. Link is the current owner of Knightsbridge Resources LLC
in Tulsa, and is a ’72 accounting graduate from OSU. Vickie obtained her interior
design degree from OSU’s Human Environmental College in 1970.
“Both Vickie and I received degrees from OSU. I received my degree in accounting
at OSU which gave me the foundation for my career in business,” said Tucker. “Had
it not been for a good friend and fraternity brother who introduced me to Dr. Anderson,
I wouldn’t have been in accounting/business. Dr. Anderson personally took the time
to explain to me the opportunities in an accounting education/career for a graduate
from OSU-Accounting. He was quite confident in and proud of the accounting department
[rightly so] and he personally counseled me on what my course schedules should be
and encouraged me to complete my degree program. Thanks Andy. Vickie and I would
like to create the possibility for every OSU student to be lucky enough to meet just
one professor like Dr. Anderson while at OSU.”
In order to take full advantage of the state’s dollar-for-dollar match, and make the
most significant impact on OSU academics, each donor made their gift prior to the
July 1 change in the state’s endowed chair matching program. These gifts are part
of the $66.8 million in endowed faculty gifts OSU announced recently.
Endowed professorships and chairs are academic designations which provide support
for faculty salary, graduate assistantships, equipment and research needs, as well
as other support. These endowed faculty positions allow a university to attract and
retain the best and the brightest academic minds in the world.