A $5 million gift made by arts philanthropist and mechanical engineering alumnus Kenneth R. Woodcock ’65 will endow a director’s fund for the Lehigh University Art Galleries (LUAG). The Woodcock Director’s Fund will ensure the protection and preservation of the university’s teaching collection and fulfill the full potential of LUAG as a driver for arts education and engagement for both students and the community.
The fund represents the largest gift ever given to LUAG and will be administered by Director William Crow. Woodcock shares Crow’s vision that art can be an interdisciplinary engine for teaching, learning and research.
“I hope that this gift will be a catalyst for all Lehigh students to develop a love and appreciation of art for the rest of their lives,” Woodcock said. “With William Crow leading the effort, I’m confident we can broaden the experience for both students and the community.”
After graduating from Lehigh in 1965 with a degree in mechanical engineering and earning an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh in 1966, Woodcock began his career with DuPont. He then served as a Commissioned Officer with the U.S. Public Health Service, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Energy Administration and the Department of Energy. He was the environmental advisor to the energy czars during the Arab oil embargo of 1974.
In 1981, he was involved in the founding of the AES Corporation, a global electric company, rising to senior vice president in 1987 and retiring in 2004.
Read the full story in the Lehigh University News Center.
Story by Cynthia Tintorri
