Kluge donates historic estate to the University

Bill Sublette

Staff Report

Billionaire businessman and philanthropist John W. Kluge received a standing ovation in the Rotunda Dome Room May 25 after announcing that he was giving the University of Virginia Foundation his 7,378-acre Albemarle County estate. This includes historic Morven Farm, 10 working farms and more than two dozen houses and modernized farm buildings.

Valued in excess of $45 million, it is the second largest single gift in the University's history, and more than doubles the land holdings of U.Va. and its related foundations in Central Virginia.

Kluge, a longtime University benefactor, wants U.Va. to develop the core of the property for educational purposes and to sell its surrounding land to fund an endowment to support that core as well as future University programs. U.Va. President John T. Casteen III and Kluge have held a series of discussions on the gift over four years. Full story.

Tom Cogill

Gene D. Block, U.Va. vice president for research and public service and an internationally respected biologist known for his research on biological
rhythms, has been named the University's vice president and provost.

Block will become the chief academic officer, responsible for oversight of U.Va.'s 10 schools, as well as the University Library, the Bayly Art Museum, and the University's three residential colleges. He will take over /Sept. 1 from Peter W. Low, provost since 1994, who will return to teaching at the Law School.  

University President John T. Casteen III praised Block for his "strong commitment to public service, his excellent judgment, his dedication to core academic values and his profound mind. Full story.

Rebecca Arrington

Arts & Science dean: Ed Ayers

By Dan Heuchert

University history professor Edward L. Ayers has been named dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences effective Aug. 25.
Ayers is a nationally acclaimed expert on the history of the South and a pioneer in the use of technology in humanities research and teaching.

"Ed's vision and creativity have revolutionized the study of the humanities," said U.Va. President John T. Casteen III. "I have great confidence that these traits will bring new energy and excitement to the College and will transform the way faculty and students approach teaching, learning and research."

Ayers, the Hugh P. Kelly Professor of History, succeeds Melvyn P. Leffler as the chief administrator of the liberal arts core of the University. Leffler stepped down after four years as dean to accept the visiting Harmsworth Professorship in American History at Oxford University in England. Full story.