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$1.5 MILLION GIFT TO JMU WILL FUND LEARNING DISABILITIES CENTER | |
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From: Media Relations September 26, 2000HARRISONBURG, Va. – An 83-year-old man's memories of his own struggles in school with a learning disability has led him to donate $1.5 million to a new center at James Madison University. Alvin V. Baird Jr. of Harrisonburg has given JMU the largest gift in school history for use by the university's Attention and Learning Disabilities Center. The philanthropist's decision to support the 1-year-old learning-disabilities center came about, in part, because his own learning disability caused him "a devil of a time in school," he said.  Baird's disability, a severe lack of analytical reasoning, caused him to struggle in academics, he said, and made him the butt of classmates' jokes at several boarding schools he attended. "And you could hear people speaking behind your back: 'That kid just keeps getting dumber and dumber,'" he said. "The reason I picked JMU was because the center is more practical and not so much for research," Baird said. "Here in my backyard is a university that could take what funds I've got and use them for the betterment of all." Steve Evans, director of JMU's Human Development Center, said that funds from Baird's gift will help with a number of projects in the new Attention and Learning Disabilities Center. Among those projects are:
"Mr. Baird's most generous gift helps solidify the foundation for our clinic and will help us to establish a wide range of new programs," Evans said. Initial funds from the gift, payable over 15 years, will cover costs for a psychologist, two graduate assistantships, a part-time secretary and sufficient teacher services to keep costs for the parent-training course nominal. Baird, who served in World War II and whose background also includes solo transcontinental flights and competitive ballroom dancing, decided against making an anonymous donation to encourage others to give to the center, he said. His wife, Nancy Chappelear Baird, is a 1939 Madison College graduate and a longtime donor to JMU (Madison College became a university in 1977). Chappelear Hall, a campus residence hall, was named for her father, George W. Chappelear Jr., once a professor and biology department head at the school. The Bairds were recognized in 1999 as "Outstanding Individual Philanthropists" by the Shenandoah chapter of the National Society of Fund-Raising Executives. Asked about his greatest hope for his gift, Baird said, "The best thing would be to know that there are some who have benefited from it." # # #Additional information may be obtained by calling Charles W. Crosson Jr., director of planned giving at JMU, at (540) 568-8791, or Dr. Steve Evans, director of the JMU Human Development Center, at (540) 568-6484.A digital photographic image of Alvin and Nancy Baird (shown above) may be downloaded at www.jmu.edu/photography/photoevents. |
 
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Publisher: Media Relations For Information Contact: JMU News Bureau |
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