MISENHEIMER — The Gus-tavus and Louise Pfeiffer Research Foundation has awarded a $1.4-million grant to Pfeiffer University, the largest gift in the school’s history.
The school will use the money to support its 21st Century Transformation Plan and develop an undergraduate research program, called the Pfeiffer Research Fellows.
One million dollars will support the construction of a $4-million science laboratory building. The foundation’s gift, added to recent gifts from other donors, totals $2.25 million of the university’s $3-million goal for its 21st Century Plan. The $3 million investment will create a permanent fund to be used initially to finance a tax-free Educational Facilities Revenue Bond and, ultimately, to create a capital endowment.
Together, the bond and the school’s fund-raising will provide $7.5 million in capital funds that will finance multiple projects on the university’s Misenheimer campus.
The new science facility, which will adjoin Harris Science Hall, will offer state-of-the-art laboratory space for student research. Pfeiffer officials also expect to incorporate its servant leadership goals in the science program, eliminating most lecture classes in favor of classroom and lab instruction that are integrated into a single experience.
Pfeiffer plans to begin construction during the summer of 2001.
The remaining $400,000 from the foundation’s gift will create the Pfeiffer Research Fellows Program in the School of Natural and Health Sciences. The program will provide awards through the Milton Rose Scholarship Fund to students who are enrolled in Pfeiffer’s pre-medical program or planning to pursue graduate studies in the sciences.
Students selected as Pfeiffer Research Fellows will, as freshmen, assist with faculty-designed research projects. As they enter their junior and senior years of study, the fellows will craft a research direction for their junior/senior “capstone project.”
The school also envisions undergraduate fellows pursuing intern research opportunities outside the school, as offered in the past by Merck & Co., Oak Ridge National Laboratories, the N.C. Zoological Park, the University of Tennessee and Mississippi State University.
As juniors and seniors, the research fellows will serve as peer tutors/mentors for incoming students.
“Pfeiffer is very grateful for the personal commitment of the Pfeiffer family and the foundation laid by Henry and Annie Merner Pfeiffer through their initial gifts in building the college campus, as well as for the family’s continuing interest and support today through the Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer Research Foundation,” Pfeiffer President Charles Ambrose said in a written release.
Gustavus Pfeiffer, brother of Henry Pfeiffer, had a long and distinguished career in pharmaceutical and allied industries. At one time, his family owned — and he served as chairman of — the company that would become the Warner-Lambert pharmaceutical giant.
Gustavus and Louise Pfeiffer founded the foundation that bears their names in 1942. The foundation seeks the general improvement of public health through the advancement and promotion of medicine and pharmacy.
“No one could ever have imagined this unanticipated legacy left by Henry and Gustavus Pfeiffer,” Ambrose said. “These two brothers whose lives were committed to the development of pharmaceuticals could not have envisioned the impact of their support, and that of their wives and other family members, on what was then a fledgling junior college.”
The first phase of the 21st Century Transformation Plan includes the construction of the science facility, the renovation of Jane Freeman Hall, which houses classrooms and faculty offices, and other improvements to the campus.
As part of Phase One, the school renovated Mitchell Gymnasium, which is now called the Knapp Health & Fitness Center.
Besides constructing the science building, the second phase calls for renovations to Harris Science Hall and Henry Pfeiffer Chapel as well as its adjoining music education wing. Laws regarding the separation of church and state require that funding for the chapel project not come from the the bond.
Today's News