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Log inMMA gets $2.5M for engineering building
MMA gets $2.5M for engineering building
by Outspoken on Tue Aug 19, 2008 7:12 am
MMA gets $2.5M for engineering building
By Rich Hewitt
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
CASTINE, Maine - Maine Maritime Academy has received a $2.5 million donation from the American Bureau of Shipping for a new, energy-efficient engineering and research building on campus.
Gov. John Baldacci announced the dedicated donation Monday during a ceremony on the MMA campus and praised the partnership between the college and ABS.
"I am pleased to see such a robust partnership established between a Maine institution of higher learning and an international industry leader," the governor said. "This gift is a recognition of the quality of education offered by Maine Maritime Academy. It shows that the state support in the form of the tax dollars of our citizens is well spent and that the students at Maine Maritime Academy are well served."
The $2.5 million donation is the largest corporate gift the college has received in its 67-year history, and those funds will serve as the base for a capital effort to raise an additional $10 million for the building.
ABS is a nonprofit corporation and one of a handful of international classification societies that oversee the verification of standards for the design, construction and operational maintenance of marine-related facilities including ships and offshore oil rigs. Based in Houston, Texas, the corporation has been a longtime supporter of the college with gifts and student scholarships.
The relationship between ABS and MMA did not happen by accident.
ABS chairman and CEO Robert D. Somerville is a Houlton native and a 1965 MMA graduate who has kept close ties with the college. He recently joined the MMA board of trustees and has been discussing the idea of a corporate donation to the college for about five months.
Somerville said the gift is targeted specifically for the construction of the new building, which will be called the ABS Center for Applied Engineering and Research. The facility, he said, will meet a need at the college and also fits in with the corporation’s efforts to support each of the maritime colleges in the country and to support other maritime institutions around the world.
"My corporate goal is to fund an ABS building in all of the maritime academies in the U.S.," he said.
In addition to the donation to MMA, ABS this year has donated to maritime colleges in London and Michigan, and plans to donate to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy later this year.
"It is our sincere hope that this commitment is the start of what will continue for generations to come here at the academy," Somerville said. "ABS wants to be a catalyst for helping to make American maritime colleges the best in the world."
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=168585&zoneid=500
(Bangor Daily News/Bridget Brown)
(Graphics by WBRC Architects & Engineers, courtesy Maine Maritime Academy)
(Graphics by WBRC Architects & Engineers, courtesy Maine Maritime Academy)
By Rich Hewitt
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News
CASTINE, Maine - Maine Maritime Academy has received a $2.5 million donation from the American Bureau of Shipping for a new, energy-efficient engineering and research building on campus.
Gov. John Baldacci announced the dedicated donation Monday during a ceremony on the MMA campus and praised the partnership between the college and ABS.
"I am pleased to see such a robust partnership established between a Maine institution of higher learning and an international industry leader," the governor said. "This gift is a recognition of the quality of education offered by Maine Maritime Academy. It shows that the state support in the form of the tax dollars of our citizens is well spent and that the students at Maine Maritime Academy are well served."
The $2.5 million donation is the largest corporate gift the college has received in its 67-year history, and those funds will serve as the base for a capital effort to raise an additional $10 million for the building.
ABS is a nonprofit corporation and one of a handful of international classification societies that oversee the verification of standards for the design, construction and operational maintenance of marine-related facilities including ships and offshore oil rigs. Based in Houston, Texas, the corporation has been a longtime supporter of the college with gifts and student scholarships.
The relationship between ABS and MMA did not happen by accident.
ABS chairman and CEO Robert D. Somerville is a Houlton native and a 1965 MMA graduate who has kept close ties with the college. He recently joined the MMA board of trustees and has been discussing the idea of a corporate donation to the college for about five months.
Somerville said the gift is targeted specifically for the construction of the new building, which will be called the ABS Center for Applied Engineering and Research. The facility, he said, will meet a need at the college and also fits in with the corporation’s efforts to support each of the maritime colleges in the country and to support other maritime institutions around the world.
"My corporate goal is to fund an ABS building in all of the maritime academies in the U.S.," he said.
In addition to the donation to MMA, ABS this year has donated to maritime colleges in London and Michigan, and plans to donate to the Massachusetts Maritime Academy later this year.
"It is our sincere hope that this commitment is the start of what will continue for generations to come here at the academy," Somerville said. "ABS wants to be a catalyst for helping to make American maritime colleges the best in the world."
http://bangornews.com/news/t/news.aspx?articleid=168585&zoneid=500
(Bangor Daily News/Bridget Brown)
(Graphics by WBRC Architects & Engineers, courtesy Maine Maritime Academy)
(Graphics by WBRC Architects & Engineers, courtesy Maine Maritime Academy)
"Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything."
Plato (427-347 BC)
Plato (427-347 BC)
