THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 29, 1996 TAG: 9610290335
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALLISON BLAKE, LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: 31 lines
Virginia House Speaker Thomas Moss has promised $500,000 to Virginia Tech to fund scholarships and a professorship.
Moss, 68, is a 1951 Tech graduate and Norfolk lawyer who has served in the House of Delegates for 30 years and has been its speaker since 1991.
``It pleases us because this is . . . a high-profile gift, (and that) somebody of his political stature across the commonwealth would be willing to set aside, even in the future, this kind of gift to honor the school he graduated from,'' Tech President Paul Torgersen said.
The gift is a bequest that Tech won't receive until after Moss' death. Tech announced it one month after passing the $207 million mark in its capital campaign to raise $250 million by June 1998.
Moss' gift will be divided among four programs. The Thomas W. Moss Jr. Professorship in Public Administration will be endowed with $250,000 so the College of Architecture and Urban Studies can hire a top-notch professor in that field.
Also, the bequest will fund a $50,000 Thomas W. Moss Jr. Endowed Scholarship for undergraduates in the industrial design program in the architecture school.
Two other Moss endowments will be established: a $100,000 fund for university priorities, and $100,000 for the German Club, a campus social and service organization. by CNB