Campus Currents

Joining Forces

Now at 175 members strong, the Committee of 100 might need a new name. The group reached its highest membership yet this past year and also announced its second gift to the “Faith in the Vision” campaign.

A gift of $80,000 will provide for a new heating and cooling system for Bowers Hall, one of the campus buildings undergoing renovation as part of the “Faith in the Vision” project. The Bowers project appealed to members because it would benefit both the history and theology departments and because it would resolve an urgent need to make the building more usable during the summer months, according to Yvonne Stratton, Committee of 100 president.

The gift was announced at the committee’s annual business meeting during Alumni Weekend, where members also elected Stratton as their new president. Stratton is a 1972 graduate and a Walla Walla physician. Other newly elected officers include Walt Meske, vice president; Lorelei Saxby, treasurer; and Bonnie Eichner, secretary.

Stratton replaces Helen Thompson Zolber, who had served as committee president since 1993. At June’s commencement ceremony, Zolber was given recognition for her extensive contributions to Walla Walla College. Zolber, a 1944 graduate, served as a dean of women for more than 10 years. She then served as English professor from 1968 to 1976. In the late 1970s, she led the development of the Alumni Association as its first full-time director. She and her husband, Thomas R. Thompson (deceased), were instrumental in the construction of the Havstad Alumni Center.

During her service as the director of the Committee of 100, the committee provided for a 24-unit student apartment complex, a remodel of the bindery building for the new College Store, and other key campus improvement projects.

The $80,000 gift for Bowers Hall is the Committee’s second gift to the campaign. The first gift of $70,000 provided for new cabins at the WWC Marine Station on Rosario Beach.

The Committee of 100, founded in 1974, is a nonprofit corporation whose members support projects for WWC through annual dues. New members are welcome and invited to contact the committee by writing to Committee of 100, 204 S. College Ave., College Place, wa 99324. W

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