BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Alumni and longtime supporters of Lehigh University have pledged $7.5 million in an endowment for research and innovations in the school's engineering and applied science programs.
The money, from Lewis Hay III and Sherry Hay, was announced by the university Thursday.
It is set to establish a new engineering deanship; fund additional programming, development and faculty recruitment; and help staff stay on top of incoming research opportunities, the university said.
"It empowers us to attract visionary leaders, drive groundbreaking research, and create even more opportunities for Lehigh to shape the next generation of engineers."Stephen DeWeerth, professor and dean of Lehigh University's P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, on the school's new engineering deanship
Stephen DeWeerth, professor and dean of the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science, called the endowment “a testament to the commitment of our alumni community in advancing Lehigh's mission of inspiring future makers."
"It empowers us to attract visionary leaders, drive groundbreaking research, and create even more opportunities for Lehigh to shape the next generation of engineers,” DeWeerth said.
In October, DeWeerth is set to be appointed as the Lew and Sherry Hay Dean of Engineering during university Founder’s Weekend, according to university officials.
'Shape the next generation of engineers'
The gift comes as Lehigh works to implement its Inspiring the Future Makers plan.
That program aims to end up “doubling the university’s research activity, expanding interdisciplinary programs, and creating education innovations to drive the outcomes for students,” according to the school’s Office of Communications and Public Affairs.
Lehigh University's Inspiring the Future Makers plan would be “doubling the university’s research activity, expanding interdisciplinary programs, and creating education innovations to drive the outcomes for students."Lehigh University Office of Communications and Public Affairs
For its broad research efforts, the university recently was awarded R1 status from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education — making it among 187 institutions across the country and seven in the state to hold the distinction.
Each year, R1-designated institutions spend at least $50 million on research and award at least 70 research doctorates.
The Hays
Husband and wife Lew and Sherry Hay met while attending Lehigh in the 1970s, and married in 1978.
“I went from a fresh-faced first-year showing up and learning at Lehigh, a top-tier engineering school, to many years later having the opportunity to help,” Lewis Hay said of the endowment.
Sherry Hay, among the school’s first women undergraduate students, said such a deanship will help maintain that Lehigh “was and is a powerhouse of engineering.”
Lew Hay got a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1977 and went to work for U.S. Steel before getting a master’s degree in industrial administration at Carnegie Mellon University.
“I went from a fresh-faced first-year showing up and learning at Lehigh, a top-tier engineering school, to many years later having the opportunity to help."Lehigh alumni and longtime university supporter Lewis Hay, on his namesake engineering deanship
He later became one of the youngest partners at Strategic Planning Associates — during that time, he was involved in the creation of what’s now known as US Foods.
Later, he joined NextEra Energy Inc., a leading electricity-related service company and renewable energy generator, where he worked until he retired in 2013.
In 1978, Sherry Hay got a bachelor’s degree in business and economics, as well as a double major of accounting and marketing, with a minor in Russian.
She went on to work for the Dravo Corporation in Pittsburgh.
She got a masters of business administration degree at Duquesne University in 1982, and later moved to Washington, D.C., where she worked at the Washington Hospital Center.
Two of the Hays’ three children also graduated from Lehigh.
