University Of Michigan Gets $32.5M Gift For Art School
ANN ARBOR (AP) - An art and design graduate of the University of Michigan and her husband are making a $32.5 million donation to her former program, the school announced Thursday.
Penny and E. Roe Stamps of Miami are giving the art-and-design school $32.5 million, and the university is making a matching gift of $7.5 million, the university said. It said the couple is among the largest donors to any art and design school in the nation.
The university's regents voted Thursday to rename the art school the Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design.
"The depth of the Stamps' support is hard to fathom, because it will shape students' experiences and opportunities for decades to come," university President Mary Sue Coleman said in a statement. "That is the power of this gift: its immense transformation of the U-M experience. It is creativity personified."
In the statement, the university said the gift "addresses an urgent need for universities to be affordable while fostering creativity and global citizenship in college students." It said the money will help provide merit scholarships "for a significant number of art-and-design students."
Penny Stamps graduated from the design school in 1966.
"It has been very rewarding for us to be a part of A&D's growth and development during these past 15 years," she said in a statement. "We have been pleased to see our investments in the school make a compelling difference to the school's excellence and prominence, and our involvement has escalated as a result. We are enormously proud of the programs we support and want to ensure that they continue to benefit students for generations."
Now retired, Penny Stamps founded and for years served as principal designer for the Boston-based Penny W. Stamps Interiors.
E. Roe Stamps, a financier and venture capitalist, co-founded Boston-based Summit Partners, a growth equity investment company.
(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
