A new era in the ASU Foundation begins October 27 when Judd Hill Center opens its doors. The Judd Hill Foundation made its third $1 million commitment to Arkansas State University to build a new home for the ASU Foundation.
A ground-breaking ceremony held September 10, 2005, signaled the beginning of construction of Judd Hill Center.
“We are very excited and pleased about a new home for the ASU Foundation: the Judd Hill Center,” said ASU Vice President for University Advancement Steve Owens, who also serves as president and chief operating officer of the ASU Foundation. “This new facility will give the foundation its own identity, as well as provide much needed work space in which to conduct the foundation’s business and many outreach activities.”
“Within the 6,300 square-foot complex are some of the most impressive and functional designs to be found on the ASU campus,” Owens said.
The new facility is located just east of the new Cooper Alumni Center, and just north of the blue entrance to the Convocation Center. Its floor plan recognizes six formal offices, a gallery, formal meeting and board room and kitchen whose spaces will work together and will be suitable for receptions, meetings and conferences. Space for state-of-the-art technology, an open reception area, storage and public restrooms are also incorporated into the design.
Additionally, a porch at Judd Hill Center’s north facade overlooks the lake that lies south of the ASU pavilion.
“It is a pleasure to make this gift on behalf of the Judd Hill Foundation for construction of this wonderful facility,” said Judd Hill Trustee Mike Gibson, who is a 1968 graduate of Arkansas State University and a member of the ASU Board of Trustees. “I believe Mrs. Chapin would be very pleased with the partnership these two foundations have developed for the betterment of education, conservation and agriculture.”
The philanthropic goals of the Judd Hill Foundation were established in 1994 to honor the wishes of the late Esther Hill Chapin of Poinsett County. Mrs. Chapin, who died in 1991, owned and operated Judd Hill Plantation, named for her father, Judd Hill.
During the 1930s, Judd Hill acquired wooded acreage in Poinsett County and made it a wedding gift to his daughter and her husband, Sam Chapin. The Chapins gradually cleared the land and developed it into one of the largest contiguous row crop farming operations in the Mid-South, with more than 4,600 acres.
The ASU Board of Trustees, with Gibson abstaining, voted on September 9, 2005, to name the new facility “Judd Hill Center, home of the ASU Foundation” in recognition of the Judd Hill Foundation’s gift of $1 million toward construction of the facility. Gibson abstained from the vote.
The
Judd Hill Foundation made its first $1 million gift to ASU in May 1994 to
establish the Judd Hill Chair in Environmental Biology. Dr. Robyn Hannigan,
director of the ASU Environmental Sciences program, is the current chair holder.
A second $1 million dollar gift was made in April 2004, creating an endowment to fund the Judd Hill Chair in Agricultural Biotechnology, which will support a distinguished faculty member who can devote research and service toward the study of disease resistance among plant varieties and the development of plant varieties that tolerate various soil types. Dr. Pamela Weathers will soon serve in that capacity.
Since its inception in 1977, the Arkansas State University Foundation has evolved to play a primary role in the university’s growth. The foundation has more than $33.25 million in assets.
“As the ASU Foundation’s role has expanded, its operations, staff and the need for independent facilities has grown,” Owens said. “This new home for the foundation is an opportunity for greater understanding by all our constituencies—faculty, staff, students alumni and friends—of the value the foundation adds to the overall mission of the university.
