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Above, left to right: Paul Marcus, president, York University Foundation; Ron Brash, York alumnus and donor; and Gillian Wu, dean, Faculty of Pure & Applied Science
The following account was sent to Y-File by Joel Porter, chief development officer, Faculty of Pure & Applied Science.
Usually, people receive gifts on their birthday, but York alumnus Ron Brash (MBA ‘79) had other ideas. On Dec. 16 Brash, a graduate of the Schulich School of Business, instead made a gift to York University: He formalized his intention to allocate a third of his estate to benefit future engineering students at York.
Members of the Faculty of Pure & Applied Science and York Foundation staff joined Brash in celebration of his planned gift of over $275,000 and to sign a formal gift agreement. The funds will be used to endow an award that will provide full tuition coverage for deserving students in Yorks Engineering Program each year in perpetuity.
When the award is established in the future, it will be called the Gordon and Agnes (Twambley) Brash Award in Engineering in honour of Brash’s parents. He gives full credit to the love and hard work of his parents, and indeed to his earlier ancestors who came to labour in Canada in the 19th century, “without whom this endowment could not be provided.”
This gift intention is the first major gift commitment to the Engineering Program at York, and makes a resounding statement, not only about the values and priorities that have shaped Ron Brash”s life, but as a great vote of confidence for the tremendous future success of the program as a whole.
York is looking forward to many years of sharing the great news about the development of the Engineering Program with Brash, and is extremely grateful to him for making this historic gift commitment.