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| Photo by Al Borman |
Chuck Boppell was caught off guard by the number of friends and family members who traveled to campus from around the country for a luncheon honoring him as he stepped down after 18 years as chair of Whitworth's board of trustees. But Boppell's jaw really dropped when President Bill Robinson announced that friends and fellow trustees had donated $1.5 million to endow a faculty chair in his name.
"It's been my good fortune to have been associated with Whitworth over all these years," said Boppell, '65, whose family connections to the university span four generations. "In many ways this has been the family business. I've always felt like I've received more than I've given."
Boppell's tenure as board chair covers the university's rise from shrinking enrollment, budget cuts and declining infrastructure in the early 1990s to its current position with record enrollment, fiscal stability and vastly improved grounds and facilities. Boppell and his wife, Karlyn, '67, have also made significant gifts for improvements to Whitworth's track, to a residence hall that bears their name, to a large endowment for music scholarships, and to the new visual-arts building and The Whitworth Fund.
Robinson says Boppell's most important contribution and legacy may be the way he has strengthened the board and its commitment to Whitworth's distinctive mission. At the April luncheon, which closed Boppell's final board meeting as chair, several trustees thanked him for modeling the role of a board member: to focus on mission and policy oversight and not on the internal operations of the institution.
"You can't ask for a better understanding than that," says Robinson. "The gratitude that I feel for Chuck is reflective of the gratitude I know the entire Whitworth community feels for this man who has given of his time, his talent and his resources in a way that exceeded what any of us ever could have hoped."
Click here to view a short movie describing Chuck Boppell's extraordinary service to Whitworth.
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