H. Rodes Hart, a Vanderbilt alumnus and Board of Trust member who, for nearly three decades, has provided strong volunteer leadership for university initiatives, will succeed the late Monroe Carell Jr. as chairman of Shape the Future, the university’s comprehensive campaign.
Shape the Future has an overall goal of $1.75 billion, making it the most ambitious campaign in the university’s history.
“The Shape the Future campaign has already had a transformative and historic impact on Vanderbilt,” said Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos. “Rodes Hart is the ideal leader to guide the campaign to new levels of success that will benefit this university, its students and its faculty for generations to come.”
“Rodes’ strong brand of leadership will continue the incredible progress of this fundraising initiative that has already successfully impacted the lives of thousands,” said Martha R. Ingram, chairman of the Vanderbilt Board of Trust.
Hart recently chaired Peabody College’s fundraising efforts as part of the Shape the Future campaign. He joined the Board of Trust in 1979 during the merger of Peabody with Vanderbilt and has served on numerous committees through the years. He became an emeritus trustee in 2007.
“Rodes Hart has not only been a great friend to Peabody but also one of the driving forces in its service to society through education and human development,” said Camilla Benbow, the Patricia and Rodes Hart Dean of Education and Human Development at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College. “His leadership of Shape the Future will no doubt strengthen Vanderbilt’s capacity to examine critical issues and engage the world beyond our campus.”
Hart is the former chairman and chief executive officer of Franklin Industries Inc., a family-founded business engaged in brick distribution and chemical limestone mining, processing and marketing throughout the southern United States and beyond. In 2006 Hart sold the company to a Belgian conglomerate and retired to devote his time to Vanderbilt and other philanthropic causes.
In addition to being a 1954 graduate of the College of Arts and Science, Hart has deep ties to the university through his wife, Patricia Ingram Hart. She is the sister of the late E. Bronson Ingram, Vanderbilt philanthropist and chair of the Campaign for Vanderbilt. Hart and his wife have three children and nine grandchildren.
“I am humbled and feel privileged to serve as chair of Shape the Future for the balance of the campaign,” Hart said. “The campaign experienced tremendous success under the leadership of Monroe Carell, and I plan to continue that momentum. It is a tremendous opportunity, but serious challenge – one I know that we can accomplish with the generosity of Vanderbilt’s many alumni and friends.”
To date, gifts and pledges to Shape the Future total $1.6 billion from more than 164,000 alumni and friends. Among the campaign’s ongoing priorities are scholarships and financial aid, faculty chairs and support, and new athletics and Medical Center facilities, including the expansion of the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital. The campaign also encompasses a $100 million goal for scholarship endowment to support the university’s recent announcement that it will replace undergraduate need-based loans with grants and scholarships. The Shape the Future campaign is currently scheduled to continue until Dec. 31, 2010.
The last comprehensive Vanderbilt fund-raising effort was the Campaign for Vanderbilt, which concluded in 1995 with more than $560 million in gifts, pledges and planned bequests.
For more information about Vanderbilt, click on www.vanderbilt.edu/news.
Media contact: Ann Marie Deer Owens, 615-322-NEWS
annmarie.owens@vanderbilt.edu