St. Lawrence Geology Alumni

J. Mark Erickson Geology University Fellows Endowment Fund

JME

At the St. Lawrence Geology Alumni gathering at GSA in Houston on October 5th, 2008, we caught Mark off guard with a card that announced the creation of the J. Mark Erickson Fellowship for Geology. This fellowship will benefit future geology students and preserve Mark's legacy of undergraduate research in geology at St. Lawrence University.

The fund was formally established with the university's Office of Major Gifts in October 2009. Below is the first paragraph of the fund language and the complete fund language can be found here.

The Dr. J. Mark Erickson Geology University Fellows Endowment was established in 2008 through the generosity of alumni, family, and friends to support the University Fellows program at St. Lawrence University in honor of Professor of Geology, Dr. J. Mark Erickson. The friends of geology that gathered to establish this fund wish to acknowledge Dr. Erickson’s legacy of passionate teaching and dedication and commitment to students by endowing a University Fellowship in his name and honor. The University fellow selected should embody the characteristics that make Dr. Erickson so special to this community—passion for learning both in and out of the classroom and loyalty to fellow students and associates.

Since 2008 when we first started working on the fund, many donations have been made through the efforts of the University and Alumni. In February 2010, the St. Lawrence University Geology Alumni Council's Erickson Fellowship Committee kicked off the fundraising campaign with an email to alums. It is our hope that the many alumni and friends of Geology at SLU will come together to honor Mark and support future generations of geology students at St. Lawrence.

There are Several Ways to Donate

1) Send a check to St. Lawrence University, Alumni and Parent Programs, 23 Romoda Drive, Canton, NY 13617 with a letter indicating your gift is for the Dr. J. Mark Erickson Geology University Fellows Endowment.

2) Online at: http://www.stlawu.edu/onlinegift and choose "The Dr. J. Mark Erickson Geology University Fellows Endowment" under designations.

3) Call 1-888-SLU-GIFT (1-888-758-4438) and specify that your Gift is for The Dr. J. Mark Erickson Geology University Fellows Endowment

4) To donate stock or for another type of donation contact Valerie Ingram, Director of Advancement Services & Stewardship at 315-229-5322 or vingram@stlawu.edu.

Your donation to The Dr. J. Mark Erickson Geology University Fellows Endowment is tax deductible. A donation to an endowed fund is not included in participation numbers for annual giving. The alumni giving rate for the annual fund is often used by foundations and granting agencies in determining awards. Recently, the Geology department has benefited from some of these granting agencies with the purchase of an SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), XRD (X-ray Diffraction) and part of the money toward an XRF (X-ray fluorescence).

We have a starting goal of $125,000 and an ultimate goal of $500,000 over the next 5 years

Last Updated:
April 7, 2011

Sarah McElfresh
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