UPB Gets Donations for Chapel

The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford has reached $2 million of its $2.5 million goal to build a chapel on campus with the help of three major gifts.

The university has received a $250,000 gift from the estate of Agnes L. Thomas, a $50,000 gift from Richard S. and Pamela A. Johnson and a gift from Martha and Jack Campbell Jr.

“We’re in the final phase of fundraising for the critically important chapel construction project,” said Dr. Livingston Alexander, president of Pitt-Bradford. “The generous gifts from these strong and loyal supporters came at a very good time.

“We’re profoundly grateful to Rich and Pam Johnson and Jack and Martha Campbell for their generous expressions of support. And we’re pleased that a gift of that magnitude from the Thomas estate was designated for the chapel construction project.”

In November, Pitt-Bradford announced a $1million gift from Mrs. Thomas’s estate to establish the Agnes L. and Lewis Lyle Thomas Scholarship Challenge. Both the scholarship challenge and the chapel gifts were made through her will.

In appreciation of her gifts, Pitt-Bradford will name the entrance hall to the chapel in honor of the Thomases.

Agnes Thomas was born and grew up in Pitcairn, graduating from Pitcairn High School. She married Lewis Lyle Thomas in 1937.

Mrs. Thomas graduated with honors from the Pittsburgh Academy Business School and worked as an executive secretary at Dresser Manufacturing and later for Dr. Gordon Huff and Dr. Edward Roche.

She was a member of St. Francis of Assisi Church, the Pennhills Club and the Bradford Club and loved playing bridge.

“Mrs. Thomas was very generous with local churches and organizations,” said Alan Gordon, executor of her estate and her accountant for more than 20 years.

Lewis Lyle Thomas was an engineer for the former Bradford Motor Works who died unexpectedly in 1969.

Like Mrs. Thomas, the Campbells have been generous contributors to the university. The couple made its gift to the chapel to help complete the campus. “I don’t think it can really be a campus without a chapel,” Jack Campbell said. “The chapel is unique in that the university can’t use public funds to build it, so it has to be raised all privately. There’s still a lot of need.”

The Campbells are Bradford natives and Pitt-Bradford alumni. In 2005, the Campbells lent a collection of 11 works by artist Norman Rockwell to Pitt-Bradford for an exhibition in Blaisdell Hall.

Jack Campbell enrolled at Pitt-Bradford on the GI Bill in 1967 and attended for two years, moving on to earn his four-year degree from the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh in 1971. After graduating, he went to work for Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel and went on to a career in the steel industry.

After graduating from Bradford Central Christian High School, Martha Campbell worked as a nurse at St. Francis Hospital, then attended Pitt-Bradford from 1970 to 1972 and transferred to Pitt-Oakland.

The couple has also established a scholarship at Pitt-Bradford to benefit nontraditional students, and Mr. Campbell is a member of the Pitt-Bradford Advisory Board. In October, Pitt-Bradford named a wing of Swarts Hall in honor of the Campbells as part of the rededication of that building.

Like Mr. Campbell, Richard Johnson is a member of the Pitt-Bradford Advisory Board.

Richard Johnson retired from the oil industry prior to moving to Texas, Colorado and Arizona. Pamela Johnson is a Bradford native. The Johnsons have returned to Bradford to be closer to members of their family.

The couple began supporting Pitt-Bradford by donating their home in Bradford to the university before they moved west.

Upon returning, they set up a life annuity trust and established an endowed arts fund at Pitt-Bradford to support the fine and performing arts.

In December, Pitt-Bradford dedicated a wing of Blaisdell Hall, the university’s fine arts center, in honor of the couple.

Richard Johnson is an elected member of the Advisory Board and chairman of the Arts Council of the Advisory Board. He also serves on the Business Affairs Council.

He said he made the donation to the chapel in order to “bring the campus together.”

In October, the university announced a $500,000 gift from Bradford resident Harriett B. Wick in memory of her grandson, Michael Quinn Wick, who died in a 2005 automobile accident.

Fundraising for the chapel’s construction got off to a quick start in May, when two anonymous donors made gifts totaling $1 million in honor of Harriett Wick.

Albert Filoni, president of MacLachlan, Cornelius and Filoni Architects Inc. of Pittsburgh, designed the chapel, which university officials hope to break ground on this summer. The chapel has been designed for minimum impact on the environment, and will use low-energy equipment and lighting, solar shades and recyclable materials.

Since Pitt-Bradford is a state-related university, money from the commonwealth usually pays for a large part of the construction costs for a new building. Because of the unique use of the chapel, however, private funding is the only source of money for its construction.

For more information or to make a donation, contact the Office of Institutional Advancement at (814)362-5091 or e-mail Karen Niemic Buchheit, executive director of institutional advancement and managing director of the Bradford Educational Foundation, at kpb@pitt.edu.

(Photos courtesy of Pitt-Bradford)