At its meeting over Homecoming Weekend—the weekend of October 7— the Board of Trustees voted to elect two new members and establish a fund in the College’s endowment in honor of the late Trustee Emeritus Frederick G. P. Thorne ’57, H’05, namesake of Thorne Hall.
The two newly elected board members hail from different coasts and different backgrounds. Robert Friedman P’15, P’20 is the founder and president of the YF Group, a California-based real estate investment firm. Bertrand Garcia-Moreno ’81, P’17 is a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland where he is the chair of the department of biophysics.
Chair of the Board of Trustees Michele Cyr ’76, P’12 said that both Friedman and Garcia-Moreno “bring expertise, perspectives and experiences that we felt were valuable for the deliberations of the Board.”
Notably, Cyr emphasized Friedman’s extensive background in board governance: he has served in various capacities on the boards of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences in Santa Monica, California and the High Mountain Institute in Leadville, Colorado.
When speaking of Garcia-Moreno, Cyr highlighted his distinguished career as an academic. In addition to serving as a department chair, Garcia-Moreno has served on various editorial boards—including that of the journal “Proteins: Structure, Function, and Bioinformatics,” where he is currently editor-in-chief.
Additionally, the Board elected Geoffrey C. Rusack ’78, P’13 to emeritus status in recognition of his long history of service to Bowdoin. He has served as a trustee since 2003.
Finally, the Board also voted to establish a fund in the College’s endowment to honor the late Thorne.
According to Cyr, this endowment fund will exist for the president to spend “for general purposes” at his discretion. She hopes that it will be a fitting honor to Thorne and a way for people to donate to the College.
“It provides a great opportunity for donors to give in Fred’s name,” Cyr said.
President Clayton Rose emphasized the benefits of having a flexible funding option.
“The fund that’s in [his] name will be used for general purposes for the College,” Rose said. “[Thorne] understood better than anyone the need for flexible funds for the College to be able to direct in whatever place is most appropriate in a given year. Directed funds are terrific but flexible funds are really powerful tools for the College to have.”
Rose declared the Board meeting a success in an email to the Bowdoin community Wednesday morning.
“We spent a good deal of time talking with trustees about our ambitions for the College, opportunities and challenges for fundraising, physical plant considerations and some of the access, affordability and demographic challenges and opportunities in admissions,” he wrote.
A significant piece of this vision for Bowdoin’s future included the Board’s approval of the design and preconstruction services for the new Roux Center for the Environment, which will be built on the now-vacant plot of land opposite the Schwartz Outdoor Leadership Center on Harpswell Road.