At their February meeting, the Regents approved establishment of three named professorships—the Mary Fair Croushore Professorship in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LS&A), the William Russell Kelly Professorship in the School of Business Administration and the L. Bates Lea Visiting Professorship in Law in the Law School.
Mary Fair Croushore Professor will direct Humanities Institute
“Last December, the University received an undesignated bequest from the Mary Fair Croushore Trust in the amount of $1.2 million,” said LS&A Dean Edie N. Goldenberg. “President James J. Duderstadt has designated the gift to endow the directorship of the Institute for the Humanities and establish the Mary Fair Croushore Professorship. The individual serving as director of the Institute for the Humanities will carry the title of director and Mary Fair Croushore Professor.”
Mary Fair Croushore received her undergraduate degree from LS&A and an education certificate, both in 1923. She was the widow of James E. Croushore who received his medical degree from the U-M in 1923.
Kelly Professorship will help educate future business leaders
The William Russell Kelly Professorship in Business Administration “is being established as the result of a very generous gift of $1.2 million from Kelly Services Inc., which includes a gift from William Russell Kelly, founder and chairman,” said Business School Dean B. Joseph White.
“The purpose of the gift is to strengthen the School’s capability in the area of organizational behavior and human resources management and improve its ability to educate future business leaders in this vital management area. Mr. Kelly believes that successful businesses require capable people and managers who treat them with respect, involve them, and develop them. These are values that have guided Kelly Services and these values will be promoted through the Kelly Professorship.
“We are pleased and honored to recognize William Russell Kelly in this way, and are grateful to him and Kelly Services Inc. for funding this endowed professorship,” White added.
Gift will allow foreign scholars to teach at Law School
The L. Bates Lea Visiting Professorship in Law in the Law School “ will be established as the result of the pledge of a very generous gift of $750,000 from L. Bates Lea of Glenview, Ill., who received his law degree from the U-M in 1949,” said Law School Dean Lee C. Bollinger.
“Immediately after graduation, he began working for the Standard Oil Company in Chicago, which later became Amoco, rising to the office of vice president and general counsel. He retired in 1989 after 40 years of service with that company.
“During this time he developed an interest in the growing interdependence of the United States and the world. This reinforced his belief that a great institution like the U-M Law School was in a superb position to participate in fostering the understanding of that interdependence in a positive way.
“This gift will promote the establishment of long term relationships among the U-M Law School and its peer institutions abroad, providing funds to allow foreign scholars to come to Ann Arbor and teach at the Law School as the L. Bates Lea Visiting Professor.”
