OSU veterinary research receives boost from three endowed faculty positions
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
$1 million in gifts to focus on small animal internal medicine, bio-medical laser
surgery
View Full List of Endowed Faculty Chair Announcements
Contributing donors include the Kirkpatrick Family Fund, the McCasland Foundation,
the Patricia Henthorne Estate and the Anne and Henry Zarrow Foundation.
“We sincerely appreciate these wonderful gifts from the Kirkpatrick Family Fund, the
McCasland Foundation, the Zarrow Foundation and the late Patricia Henthorne. They
will help us do important work at OSU,” said OSU President Burns Hargis.
A $500,000 gift from the Kirkpatrick Family Fund will create a small animal internal
medicine chair located within OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences. The Joan
Kirkpatrick Chair in Small Animal Internal Medicine Veterinary Medicine will engage
with faculty in other veterinary departments to augment research and teaching in one
of several sub-disciplines of internal medicine including infectious diseases.
“We made the gift to the Veterinary Center in small animal internal medicine as it
provided an excellent opportunity to permanently honor Joan Kirkpatrick and her love
for animals and the Veterinary Center,” said Liz Eickman, Kirkpatrick Family Fund
executive director. “We hope the gift will have lasting impact in attracting the best
faculty to provide excellent training for all future veterinarians.”
A $250,000 gift from the McCasland Foundation will create a clinical professorship
in bio-medical laser surgery within OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences.
The Duncan, Okla.-based foundation made the gift to encourage excellence in teaching
and scholarship for the veterinary-based professorship.
“We made the gift to the Veterinary Center in bio-medical laser surgery because of
the matching impact to endow a $1 million faculty position,” said Barbara Braught,
McCasland Foundation Executive Director. “It is our hope the gift will expand the
laser research discoveries the foundation has funded through a professorship the last
twelve years and enhance the application of laser within veterinary medicine.”
A $250,000 combined gift from the late Patricia Henthorne and Tulsa-based Zarrow Foundation
will endow a clinical professorship in small animal medicine. The gift was initially
received as a realized estate gift of $200,000 by a trust established by Patricia
Henthorne. Trustees of the estate approved elevating the gift to a professorship for
a quadruple match and greater impact, but wanted to assure it had small animal focus
in the Veterinary Center. The Zarrow Foundation stepped forward to contribute $50,000
to fully endow the professorship.
“This was too good of an investment to not be supportive based on the fact our gift
could eventually become a $1 million endowed faculty position for small animal shelter
medicine through the Veterinary Center,” said Judy Kishner, Zarrow Foundation trustee.
“We’re interested in supporting OSU with the possible impact for the city of Tulsa
through partnership with the city and OSU’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences.”
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 earlier.
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.