Note: This article is over a year old and information contained in it may no longer be accurate. Please use the contact information in the lower-left corner to verify any information in this article.

$2.575 million gift names and endows the Harry C. Piper Center for Vocation and Career

By Kari VanDerVeen
July 9, 2012

Harry C. Piper, pictured here, believed that "one's work should be a calling," St. Olaf Board of Regents Chair Addison "Tad" Piper says of his father. The Piper family provided the college with a $2.575 million gift to name and support the Harry C. Piper Center for Vocation and Career.

St. Olaf College has received a $2,575,000 gift from the family of St. Olaf Board of Regents Chair Addison "Tad" Piper to name and support the Harry C. Piper Center for Vocation and Career.

The gift, received from the Piper Family Fund of the Minneapolis Foundation, will be augmented by the college's program that provides matching funds for gifts to endowment above $50,000 to support the college's strategic plan.

The result will be a $5,150,000 endowment for the center, which will be renamed the Harry C. Piper Center for Vocation and Career. Harry Piper, Tad Piper's father, served on the St. Olaf Board of Regents from 1986 to 1990.

"Our dad believed that one's work should be a calling. The Piper Center will provide the tools to each student to help them in the discernment process," Tad Piper says.

The newly established Center for Vocation and Career, under the leadership of its new director, Branden Grimmett '03, is the successor to the college's Center for Experiential Learning. The Piper Center will provide resources and experiences for St. Olaf students as they discern their vocations and plan their careers.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.