SYRACUSE — Le Moyne College will rename one of its schools following a $6.5 million donation from a Rochester couple who met while students there. Le Moyne has renamed its School of Graduate and Professional Studies as the John & Kathy Purcell School of Professional Studies. The Purcell donation represents the third-largest gift in […]
SYRACUSE — Le Moyne College will rename one of its schools following a $6.5 million donation from a Rochester couple who met while students there.
Le Moyne has renamed its School of Graduate and Professional Studies as the John & Kathy Purcell School of Professional Studies.
The Purcell donation represents the third-largest gift in the college’s history, Le Moyne said in a news release.
Le Moyne can use the donation for scholarships and facility and technology needs. It can also use the funding to help develop future programs within the school and to pay for faculty or student research or travel, or a guest-speaker series, the school said.
The Purcell School of Professional Studies includes physician-assistant studies, nursing, occupational therapy, and family-nurse practitioner, according to Le Moyne.
Besides this gift, John Purcell has contributed “significantly” to the Madden School of Business, and Kathy Purcell’s background in health care “helped guide” their decision to support Le Moyne’s professional programs.
“Since we first set foot on campus as students and throughout our time as alumni, this wonderful Jesuit institution has been a central part of our lives for more than 50 years,” the Purcells said in the Le Moyne release.
John Purcell, who graduated from Le Moyne in 1965, worked his entire career in the telecommunications industry.
Joining the personnel department of the Rochester Telephone Company the day after his college graduation, he spent 32 years with the firm, which later became Frontier Communications (NASDAQ: FTR). Purcell eventually became the company’s VP for mergers and acquisitions.
After retiring from Frontier, John partnered with Frank Chiaino, an executive for Time Warner Cable, to form Fibertech Networks LLS, which designs, builds, leases, and operates fiber-optic networks.
Kathy Purcell, who graduated from Le Moyne in 1966, holds a master of public administration in health-care management and works as a clinic administrator at the Kirch Developmental Services Center, which is part of the University of Rochester medical system.