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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Grad from Class of '49 gives big gift to U of M engineering

By: Nick Martin

Posted: 02/3/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Stanley Pauley

A 1949 graduate has presented the University of Manitoba engineering faculty with a $4-million gift to create a state-of-the-art electrical engineering teaching and research facility -- the largest gift from an individual engineering has ever received.

Stanley F. Pauley, chairman and chief executive officer of Virginia-based Carpenter Company, presented the money Thursday through the Pauley Family Foundation.

The gift will support an upgrading and redevelopment of electrical engineering research and teaching facilities at the Fort Garry campus.

"He certainly remembered where he started -- he's kept up to date on issues in Manitoba ever since," a delighted dean of engineering Jonathan Beddoes said Thursday.

Born in Winnipeg, Pauley graduated from Isaac Newton High School -- now a junior high -- then moved with his wife to Ontario to start his career.

The current electrical engineering space has 5,700 square feet but is more than 60 years old.

"This is a high-priority project," said Beddoes, noting electrical engineering was not modernized when the new engineering building was a focal part of the last capital campaign.

"The building requires upgrading of the electrical distribution system, HVAC, water and all other services to be fully utilized and meet current building use standards. The entire building and its laboratories will be renovated, refurbished and renamed the Stanley Pauley Centre, devoted to education and research associated with electrical power conversion," U of M officials said.

The Stanley Pauley Centre will house three major laboratories: the Intelligent Power Grid Laboratory, the Electric Vehicles Laboratory, and the McMath High Voltage Laboratory.

Beddoes said Pauley has previously created scholarships and bursaries at the U of M, but this is his first major donation in Canada, though he has made major gifts to universities and hospitals in Virginia.

Pauley has also established an endowment fund at the U of M to finance the Stanley F. Pauley Award in Electrical Engineering. The endowment fund will support three $5,000 bursaries each year.

Pauley was not available for interviews Thursday, but said in a prepared statement: "I have fond memories of the University of Manitoba. It is a great school.

"It was an exciting time for me while I was getting a great education that served me well during my working years, so it was easy to decide to give something back that would help others.

"It's important to me that I help some electrical engineering students who have financial need, so that they will not have to work during the school year. I worked every summer so that I could afford to attend the university without being distracted. I'm hoping this will result in training more electrical engineers that the economy needs so badly," Pauley said.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 3, 2012 A6

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