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News Release
Osher Foundation Gives $1 Million to Support Lifelong Learning at Duke
The Bernard Osher Foundation of San Francisco, Calif. has contributed $1 million to the Duke Institute for Learning in Retirement, President Richard H. Brodhead announced.
In recognition of the gift, the university’s Board of Trustees voted to rename the institute the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke University.
The $1 million gift will be used to create a permanent endowment to support the institute. Previous gifts from the Osher Foundation have helped pay for equipment, instructor training, improved communications and increased staffing.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke is now part of a network of 93 Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes across the country and will have access to a national resource center at the University of Southern Maine.
“This network will give us an opportunity to share ideas and questions with our peers,” said Sara Craven, who has directed Duke’s institute for almost 20 years. “We’ll be able to take advantage of one another’s successes and share resources and curriculum plans.”
The Osher Foundation was created in 1977 by Bernard Osher, a founding director of World Savings in California who bought the auction house of Butterfield & Butterfield in 1970 and sold it to eBay in 1999. The Osher Foundation is chaired by his wife, Barbro Osher, who is consul general of Sweden in San Francisco and owner and publisher of the Swedish-American newspaper Vestkusten.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Duke University was founded in 1977. This year, more than 1,200 students are taking courses at the institute on topics that range from literature, writing and the fine arts to computing, current events and investing. Instructors include peer teachers, Duke faculty and graduate students, independent scholars and community experts. Classes meet in the Bishop’s House on East Campus and at a variety of other sites throughout the Triangle.
“The Osher Foundation has been impressed with the outstanding work Duke has done to facilitate lifelong learning in the Triangle area,” said the foundation’s president, Mary Bitterman. “Our gift is intended to strengthen what is already an impressive and highly valued program.”
For more information, contact: William Conescu | (919) 681-0434 | wconescu@duke.edu
July 31, 2006