Kauke: Meeting The Challenge

The $18 million renovation of Kauke Hall was the largest capital project in the College’s history. An $8 million challenge grant from the Walton Family Foundation ignited the fundraising effort in January 2004, and a trio of million dollar gifts, from the Timken Foundation of Canton, Ohio; Trustee Ed ’61 and Edie Andrew; and Stanley C. and Flo Kurtz Gault ’48s, capped it off 15 months later.

The Wooster and Wayne County business community raised more than $3 million, and there were major gifts from the 1525 Foundation of Cleveland ($500,000), the Donald and Alice Noble Foundation of Wooster ($500,000), and the Frost-Parker Foundation of Sandusky, Ohio ($250,000).

In all, more than 2,000 individuals, foundations, and corporations contributed to the project. Some of those gifts are recognized on three bronze plaques in the Delmar Arch, others with commemorative bricks in a new courtyard on the south side of the building.