The University of Colorado at Boulder and the CU Foundation have announced that Raymond and Dorothy Joyce have donated $3 million in a bequest to establish an endowed chair in finance at the Leeds School of Business.
"The Joyce gift for an endowed chair allows us the opportunity to attract, honor and retain some of the best teaching and research talent in the nation," said Steven Manaster, dean of the Leeds School. "That talent, in turn, attracts leading students and other renowned faculty to our campus."
In 2002 the Joyce family endowed the Ray and Dottie Joyce Undergraduate Entrepreneurial Business Plan Competition that is held every spring on the Boulder campus. The competition is hosted by the school's Robert H. and Beverly A. Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, which involves students in Colorado's entrepreneurial community. Last year, the Joyces donated $5,000 in prize money to the winning students.Ìý
The newly endowed chair will help elevate an already rising finance department, according to Manaster. The chair holder also will teach a class in entrepreneurial finance at the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship.
Raymond Joyce received his bachelor's degree in finance from CU-Boulder in 1949 and is currently the president of the Joyce Investment Co., located in Boulder. Prior to forming this company, he co-founded Joyce's Supermarkets with his father.Ìý
Mr. Joyce served as a navigator for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and served on the Leeds School Advisory council from 1966 to 1969.
Dorothy Joyce has maintained civic affiliations for 43 years with Boulder Community Hospital's board and auxiliary, as well as the Boulder Day Nursery. She is the past president of the Beta Gamma Sigma women's business honor society and the CU-Boulder Alumni Association Directors Club.Ìý
As a four-year scholarship holder, she graduated from CU-Boulder with a bachelor's degree in marketing in 1948, having been elected a member of Beta Gamma Sigma, the national business honorary society. She received the Delta Sigma Pi award for the highest-grade average for four years among women students in the CU business school.
This gift raises the Leeds School's fund raising campaign total to $51 million since 1999. The goal for the campaign is $75 million by 2006.
Endowments are an arrangement in which the principal of a donation is invested and a portion of the annual return from that investment is directed toward a specified program. In this case, the endowed chair will fund a leadership position in the finance department, with supplemental compensation and assistance for staffing and research. The minimum donation to name an endowed chair at CU-Boulder is $1.5 million. A named professorship is $500,000.
"Endowed chairs are being sought for all schools and colleges at the university," according to Chancellor Richard Byyny. "Twenty-three endowed chairs now exist on the Boulder campus, which is a 92 percent increase since 2000. Endowed chairs are clearly our highest fund raising priority and we're sincerely grateful for the Joyce's generosity."