News Release
August 2005
Bethlehem, Pa., Thursday, August 25, 2005 — Mrs. Priscilla
Payne Hurd, chair of the Joint Board of Trustees of Moravian College and Moravian Theological
Seminary, today presented a $1.5 million check to establish the Ervin J. Rokke Endowment
for Student-Faculty Research at Moravian. She made the presentation to Moravian president
Ervin Rokke before a gathering of 325 faculty and staff at an annual College and Seminary
Colloquium in Foy Concert Hall.
Mrs. Hurd said that the permanent endowment, which will provide
direct support to Moravian College students and faculty for research in a variety of
disciplines, would facilitate “the
life-changing relationship between professors and students that lies at the heart of
what we do at Moravian.” She added that Rokke Endowment for Student-Faculty Research
would “ensure that many generations from now, Moravian students and their teachers
will remember Erv Rokke, and will continue to live out his best hopes and dreams for
this institution.”
In her remarks to faculty and staff at the Colloquium, Mrs. Hurd
applauded the leadership and achievement of President Rokke, who earlier this week
had announced his plans to depart Moravian in July 2006. She noted that “by every measure of progress – from
our infrastructure to our fund-raising success, from the quality of our students to the
quality of our programs – he has lifted the bar to new heights at Moravian.” She
also suggested that Rokke’s “greatest gift to us has not been the more obvious
signs of improvement, but the way we now look to our future.”
Proceeds from the Rokke Endowment will be devoted to fund and facilitate
research in the natural and mathematical sciences, the social sciences, and the humanities
at Moravian. The new endowment will significantly bolster the College’s current
initiative to promote undergraduate research and creative learning endeavors.
The annual Colloquium for members of the College and Seminary community is held before
the beginning of each academic year at Moravian. It provides a forum for faculty and
staff to collectively review and discuss challenges and opportunities facing the institution
during the upcoming year.
Moravian College is a private, coeducational, selective liberal arts college located
in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Tracing its founding to 1742, it is recognized as America's
sixth-oldest college. Visit the Web site at www.moravian.edu
