Hintzes Contribute $2 Million To Construction Of New Smeal College Building

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA -- Penn State alumni Edward R. and Helen Skade Hintz have made a $2 million gift toward construction of the new Smeal College of Business building on the University Park campus. The courtyard plaza of the building will be named the Edward R. and Helen Skade Hintz Plaza. Groundbreaking for the building is slated for September 2003.

The new facility, which will be located at the corner of Park Avenue and Shortlidge Road, will be 210,000 square-feet, the largest academic building on campus. Designed by Robert A.M. Stern Architects, the project will cost $68 million, with Penn State committing $39 million in general funds, and $29 million to be raised from private support. Penn State's Board of Trustees officially approved the project in March.

"Ed and Helen Hintz continue to astound Penn State with their generosity," said President Graham B. Spanier. "They have touched the lives of students, faculty, and other alumni in extraordinary ways and serve as a shining example of the impact that alumni can have on the entire University community."

Ed Hintz is President of Hintz, Holman, and Robillard, Inc., a private money management firm specializing in investment management for individuals and endowments, which he founded in 1974. A 1959 graduate of the Smeal College with B.S. in Finance, he was named Alumni Fellow of the College in 1982 and Distinguished Alumnus of the University in 1987. He was elected President of the Board of Trustees in 2001 after first serving on the Board in 1994. He served as Chairman of the Grand Destiny Campaign from 1996 to 2001.

Helen Hintz, a 1960 graduate of the College of Health and Human Development with a B.S. in Consumer Services, is an active community leader and a member of the Columbia Presbyterian Health Sciences Advisory Council. She is Vice Chair of the College of Health and Human Development Grand Destiny Campaign Committee, as well as Chair of the Campaign's Women in Philanthropy Committee.

"A new building for the Smeal College of Business would have remained merely a dream without the leadership and commitment of Ed and Helen," said Smeal Dean Judy Olian. "They are extraordinary role models for all of us in helping turn a dream into reality for our entire community of students, faculty, staff and alumni."

Added Ed Hintz, "Anyone familiar with the assortment of facilities that now house the College of Business has to realize a new facility is essential to foster collegiality and useful discussion between disciplines."

The Hintzes have made numerous other philanthropic contributions to Penn State to help fund new facilities and academic programs, most notably the Hintz Family Alumni Center and the Hintz International Scholars Program in the Smeal College. They have also established endowments to support faculty and students in the College of Health and Human Development, the School of Music, and the Penn State Berks campus.

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