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UConn Foundation Receives $40,000 Grant from Newman’s Own Foundation

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Tiffany Ventura Thiele

2 min read

The UConn Foundation has been awarded a $40,000 grant from Newman’s Own Foundation, the independent foundation created by the late actor and philanthropist, Paul Newman.

The funds will support the UConn School of Business’ Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, a program offering cutting-edge, experiential training in entrepreneurship and small business management for post-9/11 veterans with disabilities resulting from their service to the country.

“This grant is an incredible help for our program,” said Lt. Col. Michael Zacchea (USMC retired), director, Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities (EBV). “It’s about 11 percent of our annual budget. In real terms, it covers the cost of having the veterans here for the 10-day boot camp.”

UConn’s School of Business is one of 10 business schools and universities nationwide that offer the EBV program. Since 2010, UConn’s program has helped many veteran graduates launch their own businesses and attain economic self-sufficiency.

“We are now in our seventh class,” said Zacchea. “We’ve graduated 157 veterans, who have started 107 for-profit businesses and 11 non-profits, which have produced more than $35 million in gross revenues and employ more than 300 people. We’ve also helped 13 veterans get into a career-track higher education, and another 24 find career-track employment.”

“We are proud to fund the team at UConn’s EBV program as they work to make a difference for the men and women who have served,” said Bob Forrester, president and CEO, Newman’s Own Foundation. “It is one of the many organizations empowering veterans to learn and to build successful careers.”

Newman’s Own Foundation has been supporting military nonprofit organizations for more than 20 years, with a total of $13.5 million donated since 2010. The Foundation continues Paul Newman’s commitment to give all profits and royalties from the sale of Newman’s Own food and beverage products to charity. Since 1982, more than $475 million has been donated to thousands of charities around the world.

For more information about UConn’s EBV program, and to see a video about how veterans transform from “warriors to entrepreneurs,” visit http://ebv.business.uconn.edu.

Join the Newman’s Own Foundation in supporting the EBV program

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School of Business Receives Largest Bequest Ever

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UConn Foundation

2 min read

By Claire Hall

Alumnus Gordon Flynn ’56, an industrial engineer and research consultant who enjoyed collecting prints, paintings, clocks and unusual artifacts, has left his $1 million estate to the School of Business, the biggest bequest in the school’s history.

“I am really happy that I can help students get their education and get started on their careers,” Flynn told a writer for the UConn Foundation in 2012 in announcing his unrestricted, planned gift. He was motivated to give, in part, he said, because of the rising cost of higher education.

“I’m told that Mr. Flynn appreciated many of the finer things in life, such as art, culture and collectibles. But it strikes me that what he cherished even more was his UConn education and the ability to share that gift with our students,” said School of Business Dean John A. Elliott. “We are tremendously grateful for Mr. Flynn’s unrestricted gift to the School of Business, which will be earmarked for the School’s most imminent needs.”

Flynn graduated with a degree in marketing and started his career with the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. He later joined Safeway Inc., one of the nation’s largest food and drug retailers, which transferred him to San Francisco. He worked for the company for approximately 25 years. He was also a member of the Society of Senior Industrial Engineers of California.

Flynn joined the Catholic Alumni Club, and that’s where he met Jeanne McInnis, a nurse and educator, who would become his wife of 30 years. Together they enjoyed going to the theater, opera, museums and special cultural events, as well as dining in the San Francisco restaurants and touring wine country. They had many close friends, whom they loved to entertain in their Oakland, Calif., home with views of San Francisco Bay. Jeanne Flynn predeceased her husband in 2006.

Flynn, a native of New Haven, Conn., also loved gardening. Flynn died in 2013, but his estate gift just arrived at UConn. His obituary said he was a kind and compassionate man, who will be remembered for his Irish sense of humor.

This story was originally featured in the UConn School of Business newsletter

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Business Alum Leaves Record Bequest

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UConn Foundation

2 min read

By Claire Hall

Alumnus Gordon Flynn ’56, an industrial engineer and research consultant who enjoyed collecting prints, paintings, clocks and unusual artifacts, has left his $1 million estate to the School of Business, the biggest bequest in the school’s history.

“I am really happy that I can help students get their education and get started on their careers,” Flynn told a writer for the UConn Foundation in 2012 in announcing his unrestricted, planned gift. He was motivated to give, in part, he said, because of the rising cost of higher education.

“I’m told that Mr. Flynn appreciated many of the finer things in life, such as art, culture and collectibles. But it strikes me that what he cherished even more was his UConn education and the ability to share that gift with our students,” said School of Business Dean John A. Elliott. “We are tremendously grateful for Mr. Flynn’s unrestricted gift to the School of Business, which will be earmarked for the School’s most imminent needs.”

Flynn graduated with a degree in marketing and started his career with the Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. He later joined Safeway Inc., one of the nation’s largest food and drug retailers, which transferred him to San Francisco. He worked for the company for approximately 25 years. He was also a member of the Society of Senior Industrial Engineers of California.

Flynn joined the Catholic Alumni Club, and that’s where he met Jeanne McInnis, a nurse and educator, who would become his wife of 30 years. Together they enjoyed going to the theater, opera, museums and special cultural events, as well as dining in the San Francisco restaurants and touring wine country. They had many close friends, whom they loved to entertain in their Oakland, Calif., home with views of San Francisco Bay. Jeanne Flynn predeceased her husband in 2006.

Flynn, a native of New Haven, Conn., also loved gardening. Flynn died in 2013, but his estate gift just arrived at UConn. His obituary said he was a kind and compassionate man, who will be remembered for his Irish sense of humor.

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This story was originally featured in the UConn School of Business newsletter

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UConn Donor Makes His Mark on UConn’s New Basketball Practice Facility

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Grace Merritt

3 min read

Ted Lunney and family
UConn alum Ted Lunney with his wife, Melissa, and two daughters, Alexa and Taylor.

Ted Lunney ’92, a loyal alum and Husky basketball fan, will be one of the first donors to have a locker named after him in UConn’s new Werth Family UConn Basketball Champion Center.

Lunney says he wanted to contribute because of the strong connection he feels toward UConn, where he majored in business and formed lifelong friendships.

“This is a chance to give back to a place that had a big impact on me personally and professionally. Hopefully, this will have a positive impact on the university,” Lunney said. “I have incredibly fond memories of UConn. It’s been a great experience.”

The new 78,000-square-foot basketball practice facility features common areas for strength training, academic support, and sports medicine as well as separate practice gyms, locker rooms, coaches’ offices, meeting rooms, and video analysis theaters. Fundraising is ongoing for the $40 million facility, the first and only building on campus funded completely by philanthropy.

“Seeing major supporters like Dan Toscano ’87 and Mark Shenkman ’65 give both their time and money over the years planted the seeds for me to make my own donation. Hopefully it will have a meaningful impact,” Lunney said. “The perfect opportunity presented itself in the locker naming at the Werth Family Champion’s Center.”

Lunney’s donation will assist UConn Athletics’ Drive to 5K initiative to raise funds for scholarships, facility expenses, and other related costs to support UConn’s 24 teams. To date, nearly 4,000 donors have contributed to support our 700 student-athletes and help keep UConn’s teams nationally competitive. UConn is competing with universities such as Kansas, which has 6,050 athletic donors, Maryland, which has 6,500, and Rutgers, which boasts 7,460.

Lunney was raised in Meriden. His parents divorced early and he was raised by his father, Bob, an elementary school teacher in North Haven. After graduating from Maloney High School, Lunney headed to UConn. A lot has changed on campus since then. He remembers watching the basketball team play in the old fieldhouse and the Hilltop residence halls had just opened and were considered the “cream of the crop” in dorm living. UConn’s transformation through the UConn 2000 construction program was just starting then.

His fondest memories are of the great friendships he formed at UConn, particularly during his junior year on his floor in Hale Hall. He remembers the day it all started when three guys down the hall were trying to watch a game on an old TV with a rabbit-ear antenna in their room. They were frustrated because they couldn’t get any reception.

They walked by Lunney’s room and noticed that he was watching the same game. They asked if he minded if they watched it with him.

“I had cable TV,” Lunney said. “That was a big deal then.”

After that, every day he came home from class he’d find them in his room watching cable.

They became and have remained good friends over the years. All three were in his wedding party and they still get together, though not as often.

“What I remember most about UConn is the great relationships we created, the lifelong relationships you establish going through university together,” he said.

Lunney married his high school sweetheart, Melissa, and they live in Westport with their two daughters, Alexa, 11, and Taylor, 8, whom he calls his “mini Huskies.” Lunney has worked on Wall Street for the past 23 years. He currently runs the high yield trading desk for the Bank of Montreal, BMO Capital Markets, in New York.

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A Parental Tribute Supports Future Students

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Jennifer Doak-Mathewson

2 min read

David Samuels '83
David Samuels ’83.

Beverly and Harold Samuels worked hard to support their children, David and Nancy. To supplement his position as a banking executive, Harold had his own business preparing income tax returns for more than 200 clients each tax season. Both were dedicated civic leaders, serving on the boards of several Hartford-area community organizations. Their children learned at a very young age that it was essential to give back to the community.

To honor his parents’ memory, David Samuels has established the Beverly and Harold Samuels Scholarship Fund at the UConn School of Business. “I hope to enable even one more student to complete his or her degree at UConn,” he said.

David was the first in his family to graduate from a four-year college when he obtained his bachelor’s degree from UConn in 1983. “Attending the University of Connecticut enriched my life immeasurably,” he said. David was an active member of business fraternity Delta Sigma Pi, graduated magna cum laude, and went on to obtain his M.B.A. from The George Washington University. He began his career with KPMG and has worked in both the real estate and technology industries. David is currently the CFO for a Maryland-based health care IT company.

David has taken his parents’ example to heart in other ways, too, serving as chairman for the Charles E. Smith Life Communities, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit eldercare service providers, and holding fundraising roles for the D.C. chapter of the National Kidney Foundation, the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and several other organizations.

While he has found much success in the D.C. area, David has not forgotten his roots. “College was an expensive endeavor for my parents,” he said, recalling how hard his father worked to support part of his children’s education. “Thirty years later, it is almost impossible for students in the financial situation I was in to fund his or her own college education,” he said. “That’s why I wanted to establish this scholarship.”

David’s commitment to philanthropy is affirmed with a bequest intention, which will take the form of a life insurance policy that will add to the fund after his passing. If you’d like to follow David’s example, take a look at our planned giving section.

Learn More About Planned Giving

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