Nature & Nurture | Giving News

Consistently Generous
Environmental Pacesetters club recognizes consecutive years of giving–several alumni go back more than three decades

by Laura Ertel

When the Nicholas School decided to create a new giving club to recognize contributors who had faithfully supported the school over consecutive years, Annual Fund staff culled the records to see how many donors would qualify.

Knowing the generosity of alumni and friends, they weren’t surprised to find that 282 individuals had given to the Annual Fund every year for 10 years or more. They weren’t even that shocked to find that 58 had given to the school for 20 years running. But they were amazed to learn that four gentlemen—all alumni of the Duke School of Forestry’s master’s program in the 1950s and 1960s—had given to the school annually for at least 32 years!

These men are among the inaugural members of the Environmental Pacesetters. All donors who have contributed to the Nicholas School Annual Fund for two or more years in a row are automatically members of the club. To kick it off, donors celebrating five, 10, 15, 20 or 30-plus year anniversaries of consecutive giving received a beautiful, matted nature photograph to acknowledge their loyal generosity.

“Through all the years and the changes that this school has gone through—from its origins as the Duke School of Forestry through its evolution into today’s Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences—we have been fortunate to have a loyal group of alumni who have contributed to the school, year in and year out,” said Krista Bofill, director of Alumni Affairs and the Annual Fund. “Environmental Pacesetters is a wonderful way to recognize people who make giving to the Nicholas School an annual tradition.”

Nicholas School Annual Fund contributions help provide financial aid for students, upgrades to educational technology and laboratory equipment, and support for educational enhancements such as student research, visiting lecturers and field trips.

Men of Strong Commitments
For this article, we interviewed three of our long-term donors. Besides their master’s degrees from the Duke School of Forestry, Brian Payne, George Morris and Elton Underwood have another thing in common: these men aren’t afraid of commitment. Not only has each contributed to the Nicholas School Annual Fund for more than three decades running—each also spent his entire career with one employer, and each has been married to the same woman for more than four decades.

Brian Payne, a 1962 graduate who lives in Fairfax, Va., worked for the USDA Forest Service for more than 37 years. His assignments took him all over the country and around the world, from economics and urban forestry research in Oregon and Massachusetts, to helping to start a pre-forestry program at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama to bring more African-Americans into the profession. In Paris, he helped UNESCO coordinate an international program on ecological research; in Vienna, he helped secure funding for developing countries to strengthen their forestry research programs. Before retiring in 2000, he coordinated recreation, wilderness, and social science research for the service.

For Payne, the Forest Service is the family business. His father also retired from the service; his father’s stepfather died while working on a forest fire.

Payne now plays slow-pitch softball in what he calls “the Geezer League.” He and his wife of 41 years, Almuth, also travel and spend time with their two granddaughters. In addition, he finds time to serve on the Nicholas School’s Alumni Council.

“I was only at Duke for one year, but it made an enormous difference, particularly through personal and professional contacts,” says Payne, who also earned a PhD in forest economics at University of California- Berkeley. “Duke graduates are very influential in the natural resources world, and it’s always nice to discover fellow alums in important jobs.”

Payne was surprised to learn that his giving streak extended more than three decades, but he was clear on why he gives to Duke. “Duke asks for money, and does it appropriately and at the right time, and we always get a lot of bang for our buck. Another thing is, I feel very thanked and valued by the university. It is amazing how careful folks have been in sending thanks and sharing what the money has been used for.

“Natural resources in the country and in the world are stronger as a result of Duke being there. It is marvelous to feel that we’re helping to support a fantastic faculty and the tremendous students they are training. Contributing to Duke is a meaningful investment. You start small, but it’s easy to give a little bit more every year, and soon it becomes a habit.”

George A. Morris’s path to Duke led through Thiel College in Greenville, Pa., where he took advantage of a five-year program to earn a liberal arts degree from Thiel and a master’s in forestry from Duke in 1962. For Morris, it was a chance to choose a different career than his father, a steel worker.

Morris, like Payne, joined the Forest Service and forged a career that spanned 33 years and six states.

“Most of my career was in management, which was out of sync with my academic career at Duke,” Morris admits. “The School of Forestry’s emphasis was on forest utilization and forest management, and my master’s thesis was on direct seeding of short-leaf pines in the coastal plains of Virginia—and I haven’t seen a short-leaf pine since I finished the thesis! But Duke was definitely a good deal. I was raised in Pittsburgh, and Durham is totally different socially, politically, and environmentally. The combination of the technical forestry at Duke and the other aspects of being in North Carolina just added to the package.”

Morris added that he also had a great mentor in Professor Fred White.

Morris’s career with the Forest Service included assignments as center director for the Jobs Corps, manager for educational and vocational programs, program analyst and ski area manager in Aspen, and forest planner in Glenwood Springs, Colo., where he and Ginny, his wife of 43 years, now live. Before retiring in 1994, he was a forest supervisor at a national forest in Utah. He also earned a master’s in systems analysis at MIT.

Today, Morris and his wife, who have two sons and five grandchildren, run an Indian trading company, selling rugs, jewelry, and other items they buy from the Hopi and Navjo reservations in New Mexico and Arizona.

“None of what I’ve done pertains to the flatlands of Virginia!” Morris laughs. “But Duke and Thiel permitted me to grow up, and provided an avenue for this kid from Pittsburgh to become a professional forester. I still contribute to both schools.”

Elton H. Underwood came to Duke after serving in the Army Map Service and in the U.S. Air Force in the Korean War. He returned to the Army Map Service in the Department of Engineer Intelligence (DEI) after earning his master’s degree in 1956.

“The study of forestry prepares you for many fields of work in addition to forestry,” Underwood explains. During his early years with the DEI, he worked on intelligence studies in support of the U.S. Army and other intelligence agencies. He then spent five years with the new Defense Intelligence Agency before joining the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers’ Engineer Studies Center. As a project manager on quick reaction studies in support of the Army and the Department of Defense, he investigated the effectiveness of Agent Orange in South Vietnam, located North Korean infiltration tunnels into South Korea along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), and studied the adequacy of South Korean defense along the DMZ.

Underwood, who was in federal service for 33 years before retiring in 1984, says that his career focused more on intelligence than forestry, despite his degrees in the field from West Virginia University and Duke. “I didn’t go out and cruise timber!” Still, having a forestry degree from Duke opened up possibilities: “When you have to choose between two people for a job, showing that you went the extra step to get a master’s from Duke, it gave you a little extra leverage.”

Underwood and his wife, Alice, have been married for 52 years. They live on a small lake in Warrenton, Va., and spend time with their three children and three grandchildren and on their farm in West Virginia. They have enjoyed their 20 years of retirement, taking exciting trips to Alaska, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.

Although the Nicholas School’s computerized fundraising records date back 32 years, Underwood knows that he has given to both Duke and West Virginia University every year since the late 1950s or early 1960s—nearly 50 years. “The main reason I give to Duke is because they helped me out. I got a $500 scholarship, and back then that was more than it is now! Duke helped me, and they added to my career.”

These three men have inspired the Nicholas School faculty, staff and students with their consistent generosity.

“Loyal support provides a reliable funding base, which is vital to sustaining quality environmental education and providing valuable learning opportunities to the future policymakers and scientists of our world,” said Bofill. “It is the accumulation of funds, whether by one person over many years, or by a group of alumni and friends each year that makes the Annual Fund such a powerful force.

“It is really heartwarming and inspiring to those of us who work at the Nicholas School to know that these alumni still feel connected to the school, interested in what we are doing, and that they still want to contribute. It makes us feel that they value us as much as we value them.”

Laura Ertel is a freelance writer based in Durham, N.C.

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