Silverman
Supports UAlbany Life Sciences Initiative with $1 Million Gift
By Carol Olechowski
Philanthropist Morris “Marty” Silverman
has made a $1 million gift to support the University at Albany’s Life
Sciences Research Initiative, a major effort to advance scientific understanding
of the molecular mysteries of life and disease.
Through
the initiative, UAlbany plans to invest more than $100 million in public
and private funds to expand its research facilities and attract world-class
researchers; the University is seeking $20 million of this investment
from private philanthropy. Silverman’s gift brings to almost $3.5 million
the total committed by donors thus far.
“This initiative is a strategic investment in a critical academic and research area,” said UAlbany President Karen R. Hitchcock. “However, we can’t fulfill this strategic vision without private support, and it should come as no surprise to anyone in this region that Marty Silverman has once again stepped forward to make a difference.” Leading the University’s effort to raise private funds for the life sciences is Dr. Thomas D’Ambra, chairman and CEO of Albany Molecular Research.
A year ago, Silverman helped launch another UAlbany initiative, the Center for Jewish Studies, with a challenge grant.
The son of an immigrant tailor, Silverman worked his way through Albany Law School, graduating in 1936 and accepting a position with the Legal Aid Society. Three years later, he departed the Capital Region for New York City. After entering the U.S. Army during World War II; earning two Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars, and numerous other commendations; and rising to the rank of major, he returned home. He started two businesses; one of them, National Equipment Rental, grew to become the largest privately held leasing firm in the United States.
Through the Marty and Dorothy Silverman Foundation, formed in 1984 and named for himself and his late wife, the Manhattan resident has given away millions of dollars to academic, health care, veterans’ and Jewish and other faith-based causes, as well as to medical research and the law. His philanthropy has also benefited senior citizens and abused and neglected youngsters.
At Albany Medical Center, Silverman made a commitment that annually generates a $500,000 prize for medicine and biomedical research; he also established three chairs, including one in cardiology, at the medical college. He is the driving force behind University Heights, a consortium that joins his alma mater, Albany Law, with Albany Medical College, Albany College of Pharmacy, and The Sage Colleges to enhance the region’s offerings in law, medicine, and higher education. A gift to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute made possible a venture that will further biotech-nology research by the institution’s faculty. A donation to Albany College of Pharmacy provided two-thirds of the funding needed for an endowed chair in pharmaceutical sciences. Contributions to Albany Law allowed the school to build a moot courtroom and to establish a chair in Gov. George E. Pataki’s name. Silverman was instrumental in founding the New York State Military Heritage Museum & Veterans Resource Center in Saratoga Springs. In addition, he made a substantial loan to Bellevue Hospital and gave a major grant to Albany’s Palace Theatre.
Over the years, the grandfather of nine has funded a Holocaust museum in Houston, Texas, and a Jewish chapel for the use of cadets and faculty at West Point. Silverman’s generosity has also provided housing in Israel for former Soviet Jews.
In recognition of his philanthropy, Silverman has been accorded honors that include an honorary Juris Doctor degree from Albany Law, an honorary doctor of humane letters from Hunter College, and an honorary doctor of public service from The Sage Colleges.
The Life Sciences Research Initiative is investing more than $100 million in public and private funds to build world-class strength in life sciences research at UAlbany. Of the overall investment, $65 million is being provided by New York State for the construction costs of the $78 million Life Sciences Research Building now rising on campus and scheduled for completion in 2005. About $5 million more for the building will come from research grants. The fund-raising drive will provide $8 million in support for the building and $12 million to recruit and retain nationally prominent research teams.
English
Major Competing in Utah Skeleton-Racing Trials This Week
By Greta Petry
University at Albany undergraduate English major Amanda Bird likes to
fly - 85 miles per hour, to be exact. Bird races, not in a car, but
head first on a 70-lb. sled, her chin inches away from the ice, while
competing in the sport of skeleton racing.
Skeleton racing was reintroduced into the Olympics in the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Games, where the sport captured the imaginations of many Americans watching at home as competitors like Jim Shea hurled themselves down the track on a sled that has no steering.
Bird, 21, who has a 4.0 average at UAlbany and is taking 18 credits this semester, has been competing in national skeleton trials in Salt Lake City, Utah, November 6-8. She will complete the trials in Lake Placid November 15-17. The rank will be based on her best five performances overall.
“I hope to do America’s Cup this year,” said Bird, who carried the Olympic Torch through Saratoga Springs last winter. “That is the most I can do while I am in school.” Her long-term goal is to compete in the 2006 Winter Olympics. Bird explained there are three levels to skeleton racing - World Cup is at the top, followed by Europa and then America’s Cup.
Skeleton racing suits the high-energy Bird to a T. “I am very emotional - I feel a lot of things strongly, and skeleton racing is a huge outlet,” she said. “When you jump on the sled at the start, you must be very aggressive and fast, but as you go down the track, your body has to become part of the sled - skeleton racing is like dancing on a sheet of music.”
A 1999 Shenendehowa High School graduate who transferred to UAlbany from Hudson Valley Community College, Bird took last year off to train for her sport. She started at UAlbany this summer, picking up 15 credits right away. The Buffalo native’s family now lives in Cohoes, where her father Cliff is the principal of Abram Lansing Elementary School. Her mother Sandi is a retired elementary school teacher who taught kindergarten and third grade.
“Education was ingrained in me early on,” said Amanda, who jokes that she “was born with a book in my hands.” She credits her parents for their tremendous support of her both in school and on the icy track.
Prior to this year she was a bobsled racer, a sport she took up in high school. Three times a week, her mother drove her to Lake Placid for training. They would return the same night so she could go to school the next day.
But a bad bobsled crash in Lake Placid the winter of 1999 tore the retinas in both her eyes, and kept her out of the game while she went through four surgeries to reattach the retinas. When she resumed training, the coach made all the students begin with a skeleton sled.
“I took one run down the track, I got off the skeleton and said, ‘This is it. This is what is going to take me to the Olympic Games,’” said Bird, who preferred it to bobsled right away.
Since the crash, Bird’s mother still watches with her eyes closed when her daughter starts down the track. But Amanda finds skeleton to be a much safer sport than bobsled. “With bobsled, you have an 800-lb. sled and if you crash, that sled may end up on top of you. With skeleton, the sled weighs far less, and if you crash, you can just get out of the way of the sled,” she said.
Bird also is thankful for her parents for paying for two years of tuition in one, since she started UAlbany as a junior this summer, but plans to graduate in May. And they have been the financial backers of her trips to Utah and Lake Placid, as she competes as an amateur.
“Once you make the nationals, it is much easier to obtain funding for the sport,” she said. “Then you can stay at the Olympic Training Center for free, and they provide (spike) shoes for gripping the track and a jacket. This is amateur racing - even the top Olympic athletes have to find their own sponsors.”
Bird has worked ahead academically so that the two weeks away from school will not hurt her classroom performance.
“My professors have been amazing,” she said. “Their office doors are always open.” In addition to her traditional classes, she has an independent study in her journalism minor with Bill Rainbolt, in which she is starting her first book, an autobiography. She aspires to be a freelance writer.
Bird has a brother, Geoff, 25, who is in the Navy, and a sister Noel, 35, who resides in London. Other sports she enjoys include mountain biking, snowboarding, and cross country skiing. She played field hockey and rowed crew in high school.
“The first time you race skeleton, it is terrifying,” Bird admits. “But once you train, you get to know every inch of the track and then your run is graceful, not a kamikaze run.”