Contact: Ralph Derickson

John T. Smith

Margaret Ingels

Dale E. Baldwin

In other action, the UK Board of Trustees accepted several gifts and pledges for its Center for Research on Violence Against Women -- $250,000 from Verizon Wireless to establish an endowed professorship, $125,000 from the Liz Claiborne Foundation to support the center’s research activities, and $50,000 from the Mary Byron Foundation to support a research fellowship.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 11, 2005) -- New student residence halls being built at the University of Kentucky will honor the first African American to earn a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D.) degree from UK, the first woman to receive an engineering degree, and a cheerleader who was injured in an accident in November 1986.

The UK Board of Trustees approved the action at its meeting today, naming the new residence halls that are under construction near the current Kirwan-Blanding Residence Halls complex on the south end of UK’s campus near the William T. Young Library.

The new residence halls will have a total of 160,000 square feet and will house 180 students each. They are expected to be completed and ready for occupancy by fall 2005. A fourth residence hall, under construction on the Avenue of Champions ( Euclid Avenue) near Memorial Coliseum, will be named later.

The persons whose names will be placed on the new residence halls are:

• John T. Smith, who received his doctor of philosophy degree in education from UK in 1961. A graduate of Lexington’s old Dunbar High School, Smith earned his bachelor’s in English and sociology from Kentucky State University before coming to UK. His career included serving as the first chief administrator of a Kentucky community college ( Jefferson Community College) and the first African American to serve as a vice president in a UK administration. He was vice president for minority affairs. The title changed to vice chancellor in 1982 and he served in that position until he retired in 1984. Smith died in July 1994.
• Margaret Ingels, who was born Oct. 25, 1892, in Paris, Ky., and earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from UK in 1916. She returned to UK after serving in several private companies, and in 1920 became the first woman in the United States to earn a graduate degree in mechanical engineering. Her early research at UK and her other posts, including a public relations position for the Carrier Co. until her retirement in 1953, contributed to pioneering efforts in air conditioning. After her retirement in Lexington, she and a colleague published a book, “Willis Haviland Carrier: Father of Air Conditioning.”
• Dale E. Baldwin, a former UK cheerleader and 1990 graduate of UK who became a quadriplegic as a result of a cheerleading accident in November 1986. Baldwin was injured while performing before the pre-season scrimmage “Blue and White” game at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Ky., when he vaulted off a mini-trampoline and did a front flip in midair and fell on his head and neck instead of landing on his feet. At the time, he was 22 years old, a senior at UK, and captain of the cheerleading squad. A native of Leitchfield, Ky., Baldwin is now co-owner of MPM Financial Group in Lexington, and he and his wife live in Simpsonville, Ky.

In other action, the UK Board of Trustees accepted several gifts and pledges for its Center for Research on Violence Against Women.

The donors and their gifts and pledges are $250,000 from Verizon Wireless to establish an endowed professorship, $125,000 from the Liz Claiborne Foundation to support the center’s research activities, and $50,000 from the Mary Byron Foundation to support a research fellowship.

The board also accepted two gifts totaling $750,000 for the UK Opera Theatre under the direction of Everett McCorvey, professor of music.

A $650,000 pledge from the Lexington Opera Society and a $100,000 gift from George W. Privett Jr., local neurologist and founder of the Lexington Diagnostic Center, and Mrs. Nawanna Privett, an educator at the state’s Department of Education were accepted for use in UK Opera Theatre to create a chair in opera studies and for research-related projects. The Lexington Opera Society promotes and supports opera in Central Kentucky and at the University of Kentucky.

Both gifts are eligible for the Kentucky “Bucks for Brains” Research Challenge Trust Fund match.

Among the other gifts accepted by the board was a $1.5 million pledge by former UK board member Paul W. Chellgren of Villa Hills, Ky., which would create and endow the Chellgren Fund for Excellence in the Office of the Provost. The fund will provide a chair, five professorships, and a research fund for areas including the physical sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and humanities.

Chellgren, a 1964 graduate of the Gatton College of Business and Economics, is the retired chairman and chief executive officer of Ashland, Inc. His pledge is also eligible for matching funds form the Research Challenge Trust Fund.

The board also approved three leases for lots at the Coldstream Research Campus. Kentucky Technology Inc. will lease two lots totaling 15.27 acres, where two 146,000-square-foot buildings will be constructed. The estimated annual lease income is expected to be $144,300.

In addition, Lexington Dark Star LLC will lease 19.38 acres, where two multi-tenant buildings will be constructed, with an annual lease rate of $209,304. The American Board of Family Practice Inc. will lease 6.01 acres for an annual lease rate of $50,484.

The board also approved the appointment of John Parks, currently executive director of Coldstream Research Campus, as UK’s new associate vice president for research and economic development. He replaces Joseph L. Fink III, who returned to a full-time faculty position in the College of Pharmacy. Parks will retain his duties as executive director of Coldstream.