Suzi Osher Gift Boosts Library Expansion

The Glickman Family Library expansion has received a significant boost from Suzi Osher, of Portland, a lifelong Maine resident. Suzi has made an incredibly generous $500,000 pledge to the University of Southern Maine Foundation in memory of her husband, Dr. Alfred Osher. Suzi is the sister-in-law of Dr. Harold L. Osher, and his wife, Peggy L. Osher, who are the benefactors of the Osher Map Library.

Through Suzi's support, and private donations from friends, alumni, corporations, and foundations, we now have $3,382,774 and will complete the top three floors of the library. Suzi's gift will name the Alfred and Suzi Osher University Pavilion, the library's top floor, which will house several exceptional public spaces, including the UnumProvident Great Reading Room and the University Room for Special Events. Her gift also will provide Thomas Moser furniture for the room, as well as for the Mildred Brenner Glickman Special Collections Area on the sixth floor.

Bids currently are being considered for the project, which will start this summer. When completed late next spring, the library expansion will give the university an additional 26,500 square feet of floor space and will greatly add to our research facilities, study areas, and community spaces.

The Osher Pavilion will offer meeting spaces with sweeping city views, a collapsible stage, and a food service area. I expect it to be the backdrop for a great variety of educational and cultural events for years to come. My deepest gratitude to Suzi for this extraordinary gift.

Judaica Collection Receives The Bernstein Papers

Roz and Sumner Bernstein, who have been some of our most active and influential supporters for decades, will now be a permanent part of the university. In February, Roz finalized the donation of their family papers to USM's Special Collections, where they will become an invaluable part of the Judaica Collection of the Sampson Center for Diversity. It's a true honor to receive an archive of the lives and work of this uniquely accomplished family, and I wish to personally thank Roz for making their dedication to the university a lasting resource for all to share.

We've benefited from Roz's skilled leadership for many years, in many guises, including her invaluable work as chair of the Board of Visitors from 1999-2001. Sumner, a leader in the legal community, brought savvy oversight to the University of Maine School of Law, where he was a teacher and member of the Board of Visitors, until his death in 2002. Both have been highly active in the Jewish community, both in Maine and nationally, and their papers reflect the efforts of a family to impact social action and justice for Jewish people everywhere. The papers will be an important reference for our archives documenting Jewish and civic life in Maine. For information, visit: http://library.usm.maine.edu/specialcollections/jbscenter.html.

Electa McLain Brown Scholarship Established for USM Business Majors

Electa "Lecky" McLain Brown, a longtime resident of Gorham and a volunteer Gorham Times staffer, recently established an endowed scholarship at the University of Southern Maine designed to help USM School of Business students with financial need meet the cost of tuition. Recipients of Electa McLain Brown Endowed Scholarships must be graduates of a Maine high school.

USM School of Business Dean Jack Trifts said: "Lecky's generosity to students at USM, an institution that has meant so much to her family, is exemplary. We are very pleased that she would choose to help students, who like she and many of her family members, choose to stay in Maine to pursue business degrees."

Brown has lived in Gorham since the 1920s, and worked at USM from 1943 (when it was the Gorham Normal School) until 1976. When she left the university, she had held the position of bursar for 33 years. She remains active in USM, attending Gorham Alumni Association meetings and the retired faculty and staff luncheons.

Brown's family has a long history of involvement in the USM community. Her husband, Phil Brown, was an industrial arts teacher at South Portland Middle School and received his degree form Gorham Normal School in 1928; her father-in-law was the industrial arts professor at Gorham Normal School until 1941. Her husband's brother and four sisters also attended Gorham Normal School. Two of Brown's sisters graduated in the teacher-education field.

"Two of the most important focuses of my life have been sharing with others and assisting in education. I believe that if there is something you want to achieve, you can do it if you are willing to work for it," said Brown. "I came from a very small town that didn't have its own high school. I went to Lincoln Academy where I boarded. My brothers and sisters often walked up to five miles to get to high school and then had to make the return trip. At 17, I went to business school in Portland. This was something very few young women did in the early 1920s. My education changed my life."

Brown's niece and next-door neighbor, Louise "Lennie" Cross, publisher of the Gorham Times, and her husband, Dennis, both hold multiple degrees from USM. They live in a house built by Brown's husband. Lennie Cross says of her aunt: "My grandparents, Katherine Mountain McLain and Albert McLain, raised her children in rural, coastal Maine and had most of those children come of age during the Depression. Though times were never easy, she instilled the value of education in her children and those children have done the same. As a result, her grandchildren have gone places and excelled on a global stage in ways that would be beyond her wildest dreams. Lecky's support of education through her work at the college and her financial support of family members has always played a role in her adult life. She now is providing opportunity beyond the family to the greater community. Now her mother's dream will live on in others."