News Releases

Five individuals were named to the West Virginia University Foundation Board of Directors at its annual meeting Saturday, Aug. 15.  Each will serve a three-year term.

They are:

• Marcia A. Broughton of Clarksburg, an attorney with the law
  
  firm of Jackson Kelly PLLC where she heads the firm’s estate and trust practice group in West Virginia.  Prior to joining Jackson Kelly in 2003, she was a member of the law firm of Johnson, Simmerman & Broughton, LC in Clarksburg.  Broughton received her law degree from WVU in 1979 and a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1976. She is a certified public accountant, and in 1983, received her LLM in taxation from Georgetown University Law Center. Broughton is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and has been listed in Best Lawyers in America for several years.



• John B. Gianola of Charleston, an assurance
  
  partner with the international accounting firm of Ernst & Young and managing partner of its Charleston office. He is a 1975 graduate of WVU’s College of Business and Economics with a degree in accounting and serves on the advisory board of the college. He is a member of the board of directors of the West Virginia Round Table, the distributions committee of the Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the West Virginia Society of Certified Public Accountants. 



• Peter J. Kalis,
  
  chairman and global managing partner of K&L Gates – a firm with more than 1,800 lawyers working in 33 offices on three continents. The Wheeling, W.Va., native is a member of the American Law Institute, and has served on task forces of the American Bar Association. He provides strategic advice to many of the nation’s largest corporations. Kalis received his bachelor’s degree from WVU in 1972. While a student at WVU, he served as student body president and was named the University’s 17th Rhodes Scholar. He attended the University of Oxford where he earned a doctor of philosophy degree in politics in 1976. Kalis continued his education at Yale Law School, and received his law degree in 1978.  During the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1979-80 term, he served as law clerk to Justice Byron R. White.  He is a member of WVU’s Academy of Distinguished Alumni.



• Edward H. Maier,
  
  president of the Maier Foundation, whose primary focus is furtheringhigher education in West Virginia. The Charleston, W.Va., native has served as president of General Corp., Big Two Mile Gas Co., Dunbar Storage Co. and the W.J. Maier Storage Co.  He is a former chairman of the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences and a former member of the Arthur B. Hodges Center board of directors.  In 2008, Maier and the Maier Foundation were honored by the WVU Foundation for outstanding philanthropy. Maier is a 1969 graduate of Marshall University.



• Douglas R. Van Scoy, a retired business
  
  executive from Sullivan’s Island, S.C., who earned his master’s degree from WVU in 1968 and his bachelor’s degree in 1966.  Van Scoy spent much of his career on Wall Street.  After 27 years of service, he retired in 2001 as senior executive vice president of Smith Barney in New York.  In that position, he served as deputy director of Private Client Business and was a member of the management committee.  He served as a director of Robinson Humphrey, an Atlanta-based investment bank, and also served as a director of the Academy of Finance in Atlanta.  Van Scoy is a former trustee at the University of Richmond, past president of the Georgia Securities Dealers and a past chairman of the WVU Alumni Association board of directors.

Dan R. Moore of Charleston was re-elected board chairman. He is owner of Moore Auto Group, headquartered in Williamson, and has been a member of the WVU Foundation Board of Directors since 1996.  Verl O. Purdy (’64), owner/president, AGDATA, Charlotte, N.C., was re-elected vice chair.  Elected to a one-year term as secretary was Ralph J. Bean Jr. (’63, ’66), a partner at Steptoe & Johnson, Clarksburg.  Sue Seibert Farnsworth (’62, ’67), an attorney with Spilman Thomas & Battle, Wheeling, will serve a one-year term as assistant secretary. 

Directors re-elected to three-year terms include Gary R. Pell (’73) of Myrtle Beach, S.C., Robert R. Reynolds (’74, ’07 Hon.) of Boston, Ma., and Joan Corson Stamp (’73) of Wheeling.

The board recognized nine outgoing directors for their service and commitment to the Foundation:  John Allen of Buckhannon,  H. Smoot Fahlgren of Parkersburg, Glen H. Hiner (’57, ’89 Hon.) of Pebble Beach, Ca., Thomas E. Messmore (’67) of Alton Bay, N.H., G. Ogden Nutting of Wheeling, Thomas E. Potter (’55, ’57) of Charleston, Janet Griffith Rogers (’60, ’63) of Granville, Craig H. Underwood (’80) of Cambridge, Ma., and Peter S. White (’55) of Charleston.

FY 2008-09 contributions

The board heard a report on donations for the fiscal year July 1, 2008 - June 30, 2009. Total donations for the year including gifts in kind were $58.5 million, down from $62.7 million in FY08.  However, cash contributions and pledge payments totaled $54.7 million for FY09, up slightly from $54.5 million for the same period a year earlier.

“Given the economic challenges of the past year, this shows that alumni and friends of WVU are passionate and care very much about their University,” said R. Wayne King, Foundation president and CEO. “They are willing to sacrifice personally to support something they truly believe in. We are truly appreciative of this generosity, especially in these difficult times.”

Private funds donated through the Foundation go to support academic programs, student scholarships, faculty development and public service initiatives at WVU.  King said a donor's gift is applied directly to the purpose for which it is given. No operating expenses are deducted from gifts given by donors, and no unrestricted gifts are used to fund operations.