Paul
K. Kelly's $3 Million Gift
Paul
K. Kelly, an SAS overseer and a trustee
of Penn, and the Kelly Family Foundation
have made a $3 million gift which will
be used to endow a professorship in
the English department, to provide
program support for Kelly Writers House
and the undergraduate program in studio
arts, and to create a challenge fund
to provide scholarships and financial
support for summer study and internships
for students in the Huntsman Program
in International Studies and Business.
"This
latest generous gift from Paul Kelly
demonstrates his keen understanding
of the value of the many areas that
are critical to a Penn education," said
President Judith Rodin. "We are
enormously grateful to him for once
again offering his support and leadership
to further enhance a broad array of
opportunities for our students."
"Paul
is very committed to enhancing the
many interdisciplinary offerings, that
make Penn unique," said Dean Samuel
Preston.
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The
Kelly Family Professorship recognizes a faculty
member with a demonstrated track record of teaching
excellence and a commitment to undergraduate
education and who has made significant contributions
to creating a culture of writing on campus. The
first holder is Dr. Alan J. Filreis, professor
of English, and founder and director of the Kelly
Writers House. Dr. Filreis came to Penn in 1985
after earning a B.A. from Colgate University
and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.
His research and teaching focus on modern and
contemporary American poetry and the literary
politics of the American 1930s and 1950s. He
has served as director of the Writing Program,
faculty master of Van Pelt College House, chair
of the Residential Faculty Council, chair of
the English department's undergraduate program,
chairman of the WXPN Policy Board, and faculty
liaison to the Trustees Committee on Student
Life. He is a member of the Provost's Council
of Arts and Culture, the Provost's Committee
on the Continuum of Education, and the College's
Admissions Committee. Recognized as a campus
leader in the integration of computer technology
into the curriculum, he has received the Kahn
Award for Faculty Excellence, the Abrams Award,
the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching,
and the Carnegie Foundation's Pennsylvania Professor
of the Year Award. He has written five books,
including Modernism from Right to Left: Wallace
Stevens, the Thirties, and Literary Radicalism, and
is working on a sixth.
"I
am delighted that Al has been named
the first Kelly Family Professor. I
can't think of a faculty member more
worthy of this chair. No one can surpass
Al's enthusiasm, vision, and achievements
for undergraduate education and for
writing at Penn," Mr. Kelly said.
Mr.
Kelly is the president and CEO of Knox & Co.,
an investment banking firm specializing
in mergers and acquisitions, corporate
restructuring, and international financial
advisory services. Considered an expert
in foreign investment, he has been
instrumental in introducing new financing
concepts to the international capital
markets. He holds a B.A. in English
and an M.B.A. in finance from Penn
and serves as chair of the advisory
board of the Huntsman Program. He is
also the treasurer of the Board of
Governors of the Penn Club in N.Y.
and served as the chairman of the University's Agenda
for Excellence Council. His other
gifts include naming the Kelly Writers
House and endowing the Paul K. Kelly
Challenge Grant in 1998, providing
scholarship support.
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