Alum gives $20 million to PSU

Anne Danahy

A 1937 Penn State graduate is giving the university $20 million to support teaching, research and interdisciplinary work in architecture and landscape architecture.

The gift from H. Campbell "Cal" Stuckeman, of Pittsburgh, will be the largest ever to Penn State¹s College of Arts and Architecture. It brings the amount Stuckeman and his late wife, Eleanor, have given to Penn State at more than $30 million and puts them among the top five donors to the university.

"My family has been associated with Penn State for over 100 years," Cal Stuckeman said in a news release. "I am very proud of this past association. This gift represents my profound interest in ensuring the future success of the design professions at Penn State and making them the very best in the country."

The money will be used to establish several endowments over several years to support the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, according to the university. It will allow for the creation of chairs and professorships, support interdisciplinary and international teaching and research, and support the Stuckeman Endowment for Design Computing.

The university did not release the specifics on when the gift will be made.

"Cal Stuckeman's latest gift is the culmination of a visionary philanthropic plan he and Eleanor set in motion many years ago to make architecture and landscape architecture the top-ranked programs of their kind in the nation," said Penn State President Graham Spanier in a news release.

The university plans to change the name of the school to the H. Campbell and Eleanor R. Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, pending approval from the board of trustees.

Stuckeman earned a bachelor's degree in architecture from Penn State, where he and Eleanor Stuckeman met. He was president and chairman of the Precise Corporation, a manufacturer of machine tools and measuring devices, before retiring. He also worked for 30 years at Rockwell Corp. (later Rockwell International) in Pittsburgh.

Eleanor Stuckeman died in 2002.

The Stuckemans' gifts to Penn State include $10 million to help pay for the school's new facility (the Stuckeman Family Building) which opened in 2004 as the university's first certified green, environmentally friendly building.