Board of Trustees
David L. Luke III completed a more than 12-year tenure with the Board of Trustees, and the Laboratory remains deeply indebted to him for his outstanding leadership during a time of significant growth and improvement. Very few people have devoted as much time and effort to the Laboratory as has David. His guidance has ensured that we remain a dynamic and growing institution, and the generosity of David and his wife, Fanny, has reflected their love of the Laboratory. I am most pleased that David has agreed to continue to serve the Laboratory as chair of the campaign to endow the Watson School. In November 1998, David retired as Chairman of the Board and was elected Honorary Trustee. In April 1999, he was feted at a dinner in his honor.
It is our great fortune that William Miller has stepped into David's shoes as our new Chairman of the Board. Bill, retired Vice Chair of Bristol Myers Squibb and Co., served as David's deputy and has already made major contributions to the Laboratory.
The following members of the Board of Trustees also completed their terms in 1998: John R. Reese, Arnold J. Levine, J. Anthony Movshon, and Joan A. Steitz. David H. Koch completed his term on the Board as well, and to him we are indebted for a Watson School of Biological Sciences fellowship that will endow one student per year. Thomas A. Saunders III stepped down from the Board due to other commitments, and John Cleary completed his term on the Board as he completed his term as President of the CSHL Association. During John's tenure as Association President, the organization expanded considerably and increased its support of the Laboratory's programs. John was also very helpful in the creation of the Graduate School and Broadhollow Bioscience Park and is still making major contributions as Broadhollow's chairman. The Laboratory is grateful for the guidance and input of every Trustee.
We are pleased to welcome the following individuals, who joined the Board in 1998: Charles E. Harris, chairman and CEO of the public venture capital firm Harris & Harris Group, Inc.; Leslie C. Quick, cofounder of one of the first and largest discount stock brokerage firms, Quick and Reilly, Inc.; Howard Solomon, president and CEO of the pharmaceutical company Forest Laboratories; Susan Hockfield, professor of neurobiology at Yale University School of Medicine and dean of the Yale University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; Rudolf Jaenisch, M.D., member of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and professor of Biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Charles J. Sherr, M.D., Ph.D., Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital; and James Spingarn, senior vice president of investments at Gruntal & Co. located in Great Neck, New York, and president of the CSHL Association.
At the November 7 meeting of the Board of Trustees, the playground of the Mary D. Lindsay Child Care Center was dedicated to Honorary Trustee Wendy Vander Poel Russell. Mrs. Russell has a long and rich history with CSHL; in fact, as a small child she participated in the Lab's Nature Study program. More recently she was instrumental in securing on-site child care for CSHL.
A champion fund-raiser at the Laboratory, Wendy has been tireless in her devotion to various projects over the years, including those for Grace Auditorium, the Beckman Neuroscience building, and the Mary D. Lindsay Child Care Center. She was instrumental in establishing the Corporate Advisory Board as a supporting body for the DNA Learning Center and has been a consistent and ardent supporter of the CSHL Association Annual Fund. She began serving on the Board of Trustees in 1984 and has since served four 3-year terms including those as Secretary in 1985-1987 and 1992-1997. She has served on the Board's Development, Executive, Finance & Investment, Banbury, Building, and DNA Learning Center committees and has been a long-time member of the CSHL Association.
It was our honor to name the playground for her. What more cheerful recognition could we have offered to such an upbeat and dynamic lady?
Sadly, one of the newer members of the Board--and a long-time member of the CSHL Association--passed away in July. Mrs. Vernon L. Merrill, who assumed the position of president of the CSHL Association in February, had been an active and generous supporter of the Laboratory since 1985. She, too, was an ardent proponent of the Laboratory's initiative to establish on-site child care, and served on the Building, Development, and Executive committees for the Board of Trustees. Mrs. Merrill lost her long and valiant battle with breast cancer on July 13. Her enthusiastic involvement will be deeply missed, and the Laboratory extends deepest condolences to her husband, Robert, and their family.