Yoh Family Donates $1.1 Million to Establish New Chair
Two generations of Yohs, one of Duke University's most prominent families, will endow a professorial chair in the social sciences, Duke President Nannerl O. Keohane announced Thursday.
The chair, the second Yoh Family Professorship at Duke, will be endowed at $1.5 million with $1.125 million of it coming from the Yoh family. It is established by four members of the Yoh family in appreciation of their Trinity College education, with support from four other Yohs. Trinity College is home to 85 percent of Duke's undergraduates and the university's arts and sciences curriculum.
Harold L. "Spike" Yoh, a 1958 graduate of Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, is chair of the university's Board of Trustees and serves on the $2 billion Campaign for Duke steering committee. He is the former chairman of Day & Zimmermann Inc., a Philadelphia-based, international professional services firm. His wife, Mary Milus Yoh, is a member of Duke's class of 1959. Their children are William Courtland Yoh (class of 1993), Jeffrey Milus Yoh (class of 1988), Karen B. Yoh (class of 1987), Michael H. Yoh (class of 1985), and Harold L. Yoh III (class of 1983). Harold Yoh's wife is Sharon Crutcher Yoh (class of 1982).
"My son Bill, daughter Karen, daughter-in-law Sharon and I all received a wonderful education from the faculty in Trinity College, and creating this chair is a way for us to thank Duke," said Mary Yoh. "Spike, along with our sons Hal, Mike, and Jeff, all Duke engineering graduates, supported us in making our gift."
The initial Yoh Family Professorship is held by Tod Laursen, associate professor of civil engineering in the Pratt School. Funding for both chairs is augmented by matching grants from Duke's Bass Program for Excellence in Undergraduate Education.
"Spike and Mary have never stopped contributing to their alma mater," Keohane said. "The most valuable of their many gifts to us are the considerable talents of their children, who continue the commitment of service to Duke for which their parents are well known. The entire family gives ideas, time and energy, as well as substantial resources, to Duke. We are blessed to have them as alumni, and grateful for this latest gift."
Duke's strategic plan, Building on Excellence, was adopted by university trustees last February and targets faculty support as a key objective.
The matching funds that bring the chair's endowment to $1.5 million are provided by a 1996 gift of Robert and Anne Bass, which was designed to endow positions for faculty members who excel at both undergraduate teaching and research at Duke. Anne Bass is a member of The Campaign for Duke steering committee. More than 30 chairs have been established with Bass program grants.