Tom Ryan, chairman president and CEO of CVS Corp., yesterday announced that he and his wife, Cathy, have committed $2.5 million to the Making a Difference capital campaign at the University of Rhode Island.
The couple earmarked their contribution for the College of Pharmacy, Ryan said, and set aside $500,000 of it to help support scholarships through a matching-gift challenge for pharmacy grads.
“I am proud to be an alumnus of the University of Rhode Island,” he wrote. “Our University has been making a difference in the world for over a century, and I am honored to do what I can to ensure its tradition of excellence.”
Making a Difference is URI’s second major fund drive, noted Ryan, who is a member of the university’s Class of 1975 and the capital campaign’s chairman.
“URI is seeking at least $100 million to provide endowment funding for the things that distinguish all great universities,” he wrote, “including outstanding faculty, scholarships, cutting-edge academic and research initiatives and state-of-the-art facilities.
“In addition, we will continue to seek support for annual gifts to the Fund for URI and the Rhode Island Rams Athletic Association.”
Making a Difference is now seeking “leadership gifts,” Ryan said, the first of which was a $1 million pledge from Richard Beaupre, Class of ’62. The campaign will go public early next year.
Additional information about fundraising initiatives at URI is available by contacting Paul Witham, associate VP for development, at pwitham@advance.uri.edu.
