Asbury Alumni Gifts Honor Former Professor
April 18, 2016
WILMORE, Ky. — Asbury University’s Howard Dayton School of Business (HDSB) celebrated the announcement of two major blessings during the annual HDSB Banquet on Monday evening.
A group of Asbury alumni, led by Jeff Stryker ’87, are spearheading an effort to raise $2.5 million to secure the naming of the atrium in Asbury’s planned Collaborative Learning Center (CLC) in honor of former Asbury Professor Don Winslow ’65. A founding professor in Asbury’s Business Department, Winslow died in an automobile accident in 1997.
Supporting the naming effort, an Asbury alum and his wife have offered a challenge grant adding 25 percent to every dollar pledged to the effort, up to $500,000. The grant is in effect until June 30, 2017, but donors have the option of fulfilling their pledges over a five-year period in order to provide time for larger gifts.
“Professor Winslow was more than my teacher,” said the challenge grant donor, who requested to remain anonymous. “I am where I am today, in large part, because he valued me, cared for me and saw a bright future for me. He was a difference maker in my life. He challenged me to live out my faith not only as a businessman but as a husband, father and mentor. The Winslow family welcomed my wife and me, as well as scores of other students, into their home. We are offering this challenge as an invitation to those individuals to join us in honoring a great man who gave us all so much.”
Asbury’s new CLC will be the future home of the Natural Science, Math and Allied Health programs, as well as the Howard Dayton School of Business. Anticipated to accommodate 130 students majoring in the natural and allied sciences, 70 student majoring in the quantitative sciences and 400 majoring in business, the CLC will help drive the potential of new academic programming across disciplines and will include new laboratories, classrooms, faculty offices, conference rooms and a 300-person auditorium.
“I can’t think of a better way to honor Prof. Winslow’s legacy than naming the atrium of the CLC in his honor,” said Stryker. “As a social gathering place, the atrium will reflect the hospitality that was so important to the Winslows as they welcomed students into their home and their life. And as a whole, the CLC will accomodate many of the values Prof. Winslow modeled on a daily basis — academic rigor, a vibrant spiritual life and meaningful involvement in students’ lives.”
Winslow’s impact on the lives of his students is an outstanding example of the special relationships students and faculty build at Asbury. Living out their commitment to whole-person growth, Asbury faculty are educators, mentors and friends.
“Close faculty and student relationships are the bedrock of an Asbury education,” said Asbury President Sandra C. Gray. “This challenge grant, offered by one of Professor Winslow’s former students and his wife, is a testament to the enduring effect that a faculty member’s investment has on a student.”
Both the naming initiative and the challenge grant fit under the umbrella of the Ignited Campaign, details of which will be publicly launched on June 25 during Reunion 2016.
As grateful students seek to honor Winslow’s life and work, his widow, Janice Winslow, has been moved by the outflow of love and support.
“It is with a grateful and humble heart that I approve of the funds being raised to honor my husband, Don Winslow, in the future Collaborative Learning Center building on the campus of Asbury University,” Winslow said. “No words can adequately express the appreciation from my family to all of those who are making this honor a possibility and eventually a reality. Thank you, and may you experience an overflow of God’s richest love and blessings.”
To find out more about investing in the challenge grant to honor Professor Don Winslow, please contact the Development Office at (800) 888-1818 x2136 or development@asbury.edu.